Requiem of Innocence
by Tiffani Sahara
Summary: Sephiroth awakens an angel and sets in motion a chain of catastrophic events. Mild language. Its not finished yet, but please r &r what I have up. Disclaimer: I don't own ffvii characters, places, names etc.
1. Ch 1

CH 1  
  
Sephiroth looked out the window at the sharp mountains around him. He took a deep breath and exhaled sharply before returning his attention to polishing his Masamune blade.  
"Not long now Master Sephiroth, Sir. Nibelheim is just through the next pass." the driver reassured him.  
Sephiroth sheathed his sword.  
"Good."  
Shinra's JENOVA project was suffering some unexpected set backs in the Nibelheim sector. Hojo, not wanting to take any chances, had asked Shinra to send in the most elite force in the arsenal to check things out.  
Needless to say, Sephiroth was no overly pleased with the mission.  
Sephiroth moved his gaze from the window to the front windshield. Nibelheim was in sight at last.  
The early afternoon sun beat down on the streets mercilessly as the army truck rolled to a stop. Neither the driver nor Sephiroth moved. Eventually becoming very uncomfortable with the silence the driver gathered his courage and piped up again.  
"Umm, Master Sephiroth, Sir, shall I see if the inn has a room open?"  
The general merely shook his head in a slight but firm 'No'.  
The driver looked out the window helplessly, unsure of what to say or do next.  
Sephiroth meanwhile was lost in thought. Images of cruel and heartless experiments flashed through his mind. In reality he was staring at the Shinra mansion, which stood at the very farthest end of town. Rising above the regular houses and shops of Nibelheim its shadow was a dark and smothering reminder of how corrupt the government had become. These days it stood derelict, completely abandoned and forsaken. Or so the people of Nibelheim were told.  
The residents had no idea just what kind of inhumane experiments took place in the bowls of the accursed building. They suspected it haunted, for many nights the screams of the tormented could be heard ebbing from the mansions depths.  
Sephiroth gave himself a mental slap. He was beyond all that now. Those days were past, something to be left alone and forgotten. Hojo would never touch him again. Not now, for he was far to powerful for Hojo to handle anymore. That thought gave him some satisfaction at least, and it showed as a self conscious smirk spread across his face replacing the usual mask of apathy.  
Remaining resigned as always, Sephiroth opened the door and stepped from the truck.  
"I won't be long."  
With that said he closed the door, leaving the driver to fend for himself, and headed toward Mt. Nibel.  
He barely noticed his surroundings as he made his way up the mountain pass. He'd seen it before anyway, and knew he was likely to see it again. Sephiroth had one thing on his mind: 'Get in, fix whatever problem I am here to fix, and get the hell out of this miserable town.'  
Before long Sephiroth found himself standing before the reactor. He shook his head.  
'Damn you Hojo... why can't you just leave things alone?'  
It was hot inside the reactor, and humid. Sephiroth contemplated removing his heavy leather trench coat, but decided against it, reminding himself he wouldn't be staying that long.  
Sephiroth headed into the reactor, passing through clouds of steam given off by the machinery working hard to pump every bit of Mako from the planet possible. He again found himself disgusted with Hojo and Shinra, but shook the thought off. He had more important matters to worry about presently.  
Sephiroth blinked his mako green eyes, waiting for them to adjust to the dim light. The mako presence causing them to glow.  
There, in the heart of the reactor, stood eighteen pods, lined up in three rows of six with a set of stairs traveling up the middle. Atop the stairs stood a great metal door. It was sealed shut, both by the scientist who had last closed it and years of disuse.  
As if drawn by some unexplainable force, Sephiroth began to walk up the stairs toward the door. It seemed to him the closer he came to the door, the darker his surrounds appeared. Only when Sephiroth stood face to face with the door could he make out the lettering above it.  
JENOVA.  
Suddenly he was no longer aware of the uncomfortable heat and steam. There was a terrible cold and hellish energy radiating from the door. What could create such an energy? He placed his hands against the door, almost immediately after drawing them away.  
The metal was cold, freezing beyond a normal degree. It sent numbing waves through his arms, a burning sensation that began in his fingertips and was slowly spreading like a parasitic disease.  
He had to know what was beyond that door! Sephiroth grit his teeth and prepared to try to force the door open when something caught his attention.  
Over to his far right he saw the glimmer of light. Seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once it shone on in complete and absolute defiance of the darkness. He stepped away from the door, now desiring to seek this light, or at least find out where it was coming from.  
It didn't take him long to find a second door. Though hidden by masses of wires and pieces of scrap metal he felt drawn to it much like he had been to the first door. It seemed to send out waves of tranquility and, despite his familiarity with corruption and violence Sephiroth did not find the feeling unpleasant.  
The very last thing he noticed before opening the door and passing through were the markings above it. It was old and faded, peeling away at a rapid rate, but still legible. Written in a holy form of Wutain kanji were the words "Pure Dream".  
Sephiroth made his way down a long and narrow hall lit with dieing mako lights that flickered halfheartedly, causing what little illumination there was to come and go. He was met with a dead end. Sephiroth furrowed his brow. This couldn't be right. Something was tugging at his insides and told him to go further. But there was no further to go.  
He placed his hands against the rock wall, searching for perhaps a lever or a switch of some kind. Instead he felt very subtle vibrations in the wall. As if there was machinery running on the other side. He pressed his ear to the wall. There was certainly something on the other side of the wall... but how to get at it? Whatever was beyond the wall, Hojo certainly did not want it to be seen.  
Sephiroth did not allow himself to get frustrated or impatient. Even after several minutes of searching. Perhaps the words above the first door had something to do with it. Pure Dream. What did that mean anyway? He shook his head and continued to feel his way around the wall, still searching.  
Close to the left side of the door he felt something unusual. He brushed away the dusk and looked at the carved markings. More holy Wutain kanji. Luckily he had learned Wutain during his time as general in the Wutain war. However he had rarely encountered this form, (no one spoke it anymore except the wutain priests and clerics, and they were a rapidly diminishing breed) but he managed to make out the words.  
They spoke of a fallen god, and his seal on the door. Sephiroth snorted. He didn't believe in gods or blessings or curses. But as he read them aloud to himself the wall shifted and the rock in front of him vanished revealing another door. This one however was not sealed as the Jenova door had been.  
He found the handle and a keypad. It didn't take him long to crack the code. The only oddity of the correct password was that the series of numbers were his. The door 'blib'ed at him and then slid aside revealing another short hallway.  
Sephiroth stepped through the door which shut behind him and walked down the hallway, emerging into a great cavern at the end. There were only three lights. Each resting upon the dirt floor against the rock walls, angeling upward shining into an egg shaped pod of glass sitting in the middle of the chamber. The pod was roughly twelve feet tall and five and a half feet in diameter in the middle. It was pure glass except for two thick metal bands that circled it around its middle both horizontally and vertically.  
It was filled with a translucent pearly blue liquid that swirled and shimmered in the light, catching it, twisting it, and casting it out to dance upon the cavern walls.  
Sephiroth had never seen a set up like this and it was rather unsettling, but more surprising than the oddity of the room was the reason for the room. Curled up inside the pod, suspended in Mako, was a being unlike anything Sephiroth had ever seen before.  
She looked young, 16 maybe 17. Her hair was not the platinum silver of Sephiroth's, but a soft white, and very long. Her skin was a pale creamy color. She had a soft face upon which three blue markings were visible. A long uneven diamond shape in the middle of her forehead, almost as if it were a jewel hanging from a tiara. And two diamonds with a single line on the far side of each, one on either side of her eyes, but below the temple. Her eyes were closed. Yet more astonishing than her odd appearance was her wings. Beautiful white feathered wings mounted between her shoulder blades. They had been folded neatly to her back, though the tips of the feathers on the ends of her wings extended further down than her curled figure.  
Sephiroth walked toward the pod, stopping only when he was close enough to touch it. He was entranced and without realizing it, he reached out and pressed his palm to the glass.  
There was a jolt and energy raced though his arm and spread, a force unlike anything he had ever encountered. Though it was not painful he drew his hand back in reflex. It could not have come from the machinery, for there was none to be found, and so he concluded it must have been the girl inside. Glancing down at his hand he rubbed his fingers against his palm and found it wet. The pure mako tingled against his skin, reacting against the Jenova cells inside his body. The pod was full of cracks and leaking.  
Problem located. Though Sephiroth was sure that Hojo would have never sent him had he know the problem was with this experiment.  
The girl inside twitched and another crack formed in the smooth surface of the glass. Whoever she was, she wanted out. Pity was not something often felt by Sephiroth, but at that moment he felt something very akin to it.  
He would fix the problem alright, but his solution was certainly not protocol. Hojo would be very displeased. Sephiroth smirked, let him be displeased, there was nothing Hojo could do to stop him.  
Sephiroth removed his trench coat, carefully setting it aside with his Masamune. He turned back toward the pod. This would take some time.  
There was a slight tingling in his back along the edge of his right shoulder blade and then pain. There was an odd sensation of bone forming and then filling out with muscle, flesh, then feather. Completely unphased by this unusual event Sephiroth merely stretched and folded the wing a few times. However the first time he had experienced it, circumstances had been much different.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ flashback ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
A young Sephiroth stood in front of a large alter. He was deep underground yet there was light everywhere. Pure Mako gathered in pools throughout the room, pulsating with light and energy. He was in a huge shrine of sorts. The walls the ceiling, even the floor was covered with murals, each different but linked by some common thread. The Masamune. How else they were linked, he could not decipher. But he knew it was something. The meaning was there... in the back of his mind, just beyond reach.  
He strode forward, his boots thumping against the stone floor. The sound echoed off the walls and revibrated throughout the room. Passing statues and pillars, most broken and toppled, he made his way across the expanse of the cavern, and up a flight of stairs that spanned the entire length of the room.  
The alter was made of pure white marble, and carved with delicate images. All depicting life, preserved and thriving. Sephiroth walked around the alter, his hands exploring the images carved upon the smooth stone. He let his fingertips trace and retrace the designs a hundred times as his eyes fell upon image after image.  
This alter... these pictures... this place, ancient. It was all ancient beyond words. He could feel it in the air and on the stone, he could smell it in the air, and hear it in the silence. Though it no longer held any of the splendor it would have had were he witnessing it in its former glory the place still had the ability to instill awe upon a visitor, and Sephiroth was no exception.  
An object covered by a white ceremonial cloth lay upon the alter. Almost hesitantly Sephiroth touched the cloth. He found it smooth, unaffected by time, preserved. With growing curiosity, he gripped the cloth, lifted it straight up and whipped it back once it ceased to touch the alter.  
Dropping the cloth he stared at what had lay hidden. Sword and sheath. But unlike any he had ever seen before. The sword was done Katana style, but was over eight feet long from pomell to tip. The hilt was simply black, wrapped in an X pattern with black cloth, but the blade... It was a shinning polished silver that shone out with a resilience Sephiroth had never seen in any metal before. It reflected the light of the Mako in a myriad of colors and he could only wonder what it would do in the sunlight.  
He had to touch it, take it, make the sword his own. He reached out and grasp the hilt firmly.  
There was a warmth. It began to spread thought his being. As it began to reach his core there was a cold jolt and he felt something shatter inside him, the force caused him to sink to his knees, but still he held the Masamune.  
Jenova was fighting back.  
Suddenly there was a shock, and a stinging sensation. Through sheer force of will he ignored the pain and clamped his fingers shut around the hilt, refusing to let go. He shut his eyes tight, only to be shown an entirely different surrounding. He didn't understand the pictures that flashed through his mind, though they would stay with him the rest of his life.  
Images of too opposing forces, green and red, raging and battling. There was no form to them, only color. And as the touched each other they transformed, red became green, green became red, a never ending cycle of death and rebirth.  
There was a moment where he felt he might be torn apart, from the inside out, and then the warm and the cold simply neutralized each other. The colors faded to gray and all was quite within him. Sephiroth opened his eyes. He caught the sight of blood dripping out from between the fingers that clenched the hilt of the Masamune blade.  
He stood, pulling the Masamune from the alter. He felt something hot and sticky run down his back. Blood. There was a burning along his right shoulder blade and he felt the skin break as bone pushed its way through. He clenched his teeth and fists in attempts to stop himself from making any sound in response to the pain.  
He could see out of the corner of his eye the bones growing and stretching. Once they were formed tendon and muscle encased them, followed by flesh and black feather.  
Sephiroth did not feel panic. He never had, and probably never would. He was too detached from humans and their host of emotions to feel such petty things. So he did not feel panicked, rather... perplexed.  
Turning his head back and looking over his shoulder he flapped his wing a few times, wondering how he could get rid of it. He closed his eyes and focused his metal energy. Perhaps he could simply will the wing away. For several minutes he stood there, shrouded in silence, concentrating. The whole wing began to tingle and then it disintegrate, leaving a few stray feathers to hang in the air before floating to the ground.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Sephiroth shook himself. He stretched and rustled the black feathers of his single wing. Something few people had seen, and those who had did not live to tell about it. He decided to leave it for now. He'd send it back to the ethereal before going back to Nibelheim.  
It only appeared these days during certain rare and seemingly random instances. He decided that its appearance here must be a result of his touching the pod.  
He looked around the room and found a small panel built into the rock wall. It turned on at his approach. Since when did Shinra put such high technology into Hojo's projects? Sephiroth would have plenty of time to think about that later.  
  
After several hours Sephiroth stretched again and turned to face the pod. This was it. It had taken him longer than he expected to hack into the system and then decode the information enough to be able to accomplish what he wanted. Firewalls and encrypted data had made for slow progress. These things usually didn't give him trouble, but he had never seen protection to such a degree.  
By now there was no doubt in his mind that this was something top secret, something that even Shinra did not know about. Something he was certainly not supposed to be uncovering or snooping with.  
A loud crack in the glass sounded and Sephiroth moved around to the front of the pod to get a better view. The metal bands clicked and broke apart, falling away. There was another loud snap and a large crack trailed its way down the pod. The girl inside twitched again, but this time it seemed from pain more than simply longing to be free.  
Suddenly the glass shattered and Sephiroth put an arm up to shield his face. After the glass settled he brought his arm down. The Mako still held the shape of the pod, continuing to swirl about.  
The girl uncurled herself and spread her wings wide. As she did the Mako broke shape, scattering in all directions, sounding like a gentle rain as it collided with the walls and the floor. The girl hovered a few feet off the ground, her wings barely moving yet still keeping her aloft.  
She shivered and opened her eyes slightly, then closed them and opened them again, blinking a few times as though she had not actually used them in quite some time. They were a vibrant blue and definitely Mako. The color was simply to brilliant to be natural, though he had a feeling it was not entirely mako's doing that gave them such intensity. And they were deep. Looking into her eyes Sephiroth could see the intense sorrow and lament buried within. Were he not the man he was, it would have shaken him.  
"Who..." he paused. What did he care who she was? "What are you?" asked Sephiroth.  
Her eyes fell upon him, and he met her gaze fiercely. She shivered again and averted her eyes. But when she spoke it was unlike any voice Sephiroth had ever heard. She did not speak but a gentle whisper, her words hanging in the air before they sank to grace Sephiroth with their sound.  
It was hauntingly beautiful, and absolutely enchanting. Filled with purity, sorrow, and pain it had an unusual but marvelous tone to it, a voice that once may have been filled with the power to do and shape incredibly things... but no more. The angel had long ago lost her will to use or summon any of the powers that went along with the title.  
She had said, simply this, "Watashi no namae wa KiyoYume desu soshite tenshi deshita." She spoke in the ancient holy Wutain, her soft silvery voice causing the words to sound like music. Sephiroth had understood her clearly.  
  
'My name is KiyoYume... and I was an angel' 


	2. Ch 2

***Author's Note: It didn't occur to me that italics would not show up when I uploaded my chapters to Fanfiction.net. Unfortunetly this makes it difficult for you, the reader, to understand what is going on at certain points in the story. There will be times when Sephiroth and KiyoYume have sort of a mental converstation. Not exactly telepathy, but more of an understanding of the others thoughts. When you see a thought, by itself on a new paragraph like so:  
Stay.  
Its a thought. Seph's thoughts are just plane. KiyoYume's will have ' ' around them. I didn't put " " around either of their thoughts because it isn't exactly conversation. When they comunicate in this way it will pretty much look like this. (KiyoYume's thoughts on the top, Seph's are on the bottom)  
'You lied!'  
I didn't lie. I apologise for the inconvience, and thank you for understanding. ~Shimensoka Mitsukai  
  
Ch 2  
  
Sephiroth's cold unforgiving eyes bore into the angel. Though KiyoYume's eyes remained half-closed and her gaze was directed away from him, she could feel him. She could feel his very presence in the room, and it made her tremble.  
Sephiroth was neither shocked nor surprised to be standing there and speaking with an angel. He learned long ago to ignore such reactions. He continued to study her, his mind already calculating his options and the outcome to each.  
Curiosity drew KiyoYume's gaze back to the man before her. He was tall, much taller than she was, though from her position in the air it wasn't obvious. And well built. Years of military life had trimmed the general down to only what was necessary. Raw strength. Not only had it sharpened his muscles, but it had taken his already quick and intelligent mind and trained it in strategy and ruthlessness.  
His hair was a long platinum silver, and though hers was far longer it held no were near the splendor his did. His hard mako green eyes continued to pierce her. And then her eyes fell upon his wing... his single black wing.  
There were several moments of silence in which the two looked each other over. Sephiroth finished first. He caught her gaze lingering on his wing and snapped it shut, pressing it close to his back, startling the angel.  
She forced herself to meet his eyes. As an angel she could feel people; feel what kind of being they were (though KiyoYume was particularly good with this skill), and what she sensed in Sephiroth terrified her. But there was something else, a distinct feeling on top of what she regularly felt. Almost as if she could touch his thoughts...  
Get down.  
Sephiroth did not like her in the air above him. It was simple as that. She had neither the strength nor the will to resist him and so she landed at his feet, helpless, naked, and trembling.  
Sephiroth's thoughts were elsewhere at the moment.  
'Ally or Enemy? You don't know yet. So what do you do with her? Leave her? No, you have to take her. Where will you take her? Midgar first. Stop at Shinra's and find out information about her, but you'll have to keep her hidden. She's yours now, not that bastard Hojo's. Learn about her first. But God knows, keep her secret. If Hojo ever found out... and he has enough pull in Shinra to cause problems, even for me. Minor annoyances they might be, it would not be a pretty mess. Ally or Enemy? Once thats answered you can decide what to do.' His mind settled Sephiroth looked down at the angel.  
"You are coming with me." He said in Wutaian. He could have made himself clear, could have pressed his point with something like: Don't struggle or you'll regret it, I promise. But he sensed that she knew that. Whether the tone in his voice had given him away or she had derived her understanding though mystical means he didn't care. She understood, and that was all he needed.  
Sephiroth turned around and picked up his trench coat, but paused before putting it on, realizing he still bore his wing.  
He closed his eyes and concentrated. There was a numbing tingle throughout the wing and then it simply vanished, leaving behind a few feathers to fall through the air. He reached down and collected the Masamune.  
KiyoYume gaspt and moved forward to collect his stray feathers, pure horror in her eyes. Having had wings all her life she could not imagine living without them. Why on earth would this man purposely cause his wing to cease to exist? But more importantly, how exactly was he able to preform such a feat? KiyoYume had never known an angel to have such a power before; but even one did, no angel would ever shed its wings!  
She was reaching for the last one when his voice stopped her short, her hand hovering inches away from the coal black feather.  
"Leave them." She withdrew her hand but silently refused to surrender the others. Sephiroth, eager to leave the reactor, decided it wasn't worth it to use force over a few feathers, so he buckled his sheath back onto his belt and turned toward the door.  
He walked back down the hallway followed by KiyoYume. The angel looked back over her shoulder, mourning for the feather left behind. They made their way through the reactor, Sephiroth closing and covering doors behind them to erase traces of their passing.  
  
A draft could be felt flowing in from the entrance, as the evening air was swept in by the mountain breeze. Sephiroth stopped just outside the doorway to observe the sunset. The angel shivered in the crisp air. Glancing down at her, he saw this. Not wanting to waste time nursing a sick angel back to health he dumped his trench coat in her hands. After greatfully wrapping herself up, her shivers subsided.  
Sephiroth paused and listened; movement could be heard on the path below. The private whom had driven Sephiroth up came around the corner. He was an older teen with wild blond hair. Sephiroth's eyes narrowed when he saw him.  
"Strife? What the hell are you doing up here?"  
"You've been gone a day and a half now. I thought maybe something had happened to you...."  
Sephiroth hadn't realized it had been that long. A day an a half? It must have taken him much longer than he figured to decode the system and hack through the firewalls, but he was sure that wasn't it. The angel... he forced himself not to turn and look back at her. It had only been a few minutes. Less than twenty words had passed between them and yet... time seemed to have slipped away.  
"Who is she?"  
The privates eyes had wondered to the girl standing beside and a little behind Sephiroth. She met his gaze mildly, and instantly he found himself transfixed by her lucid blue eyes.  
Now Sephiroth did take the time to look back at her before speaking.  
"Her... She's a resident of Niblehiem. She was up here hiking and got caught in a storm. She took shelter in the reactor but got lost. Her cloths are torn up pretty bad, a lot of Mako-fume decay... I'm taking her back to the village."  
KiyoYume was struggling to hold onto the coat and the black feathers she had picked up earlier.  
The private nodded.  
One of the feathers finally slipped and the breeze began to blow it away. Panicked, she raced after it, loosing her grip on the heavy coat. The leather felt slippery in her hands. She tried to adjust her grip, but the coat slipped and she tripped. KiyoYume hit the ground and rolled a few times, tumbling out of the coat. She sat up and shook her head to clear it. The coat slid off her shoulders and back revealing her wings. She shook the rest of it off and looked desperately for the feather.  
He blinked.  
Her eyes fell upon feather, just an arms length away.  
"What the hell is that?"  
Sephiroth looked at KiyoYume again. Then back to the private.  
"Hojo's experiment. One of them anyway."  
Strife.  
KiyoYume stretched out her hand.  
Strife knows.  
So close...  
By the look on his face Sephiroth knew he couldn't be trusted to stay quiet. He was a loose end.  
"What? An experiment? What the hell are you talking about?"  
Her finger tips brushed the feather.  
Sephiroth saw the man's hand creep toward the hilt of his Buster sword. Faster than the young private could react Sephiroth drew his Masamune and lunged forward, driving it through the man's stomach. There was complete silence.  
KiyoYume took hold of the feather and now sat up and looked back to see what had happened. Stunned, she shrank back in disbelief.  
Strife's face was a mixture of complete confusion, surprise and pain. Sephiroth showed nothing. He locked eyes with Strife, ignoring the hot blood oozing over his hands and the hilt of his sword. It dripped off his fingers, slowing forming a pool of blood at his feet.  
KiyoYume choked back a sob. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She had left heaven to save the planet and its people. Now free, with hope in sight, she was met with this... with death. She laced her fingers together, let her head sink to her knees; her lips moving in silent prayer.  
Sephiroth pulled his sword back in a quick, but rough jerk. Strife's eyes took on a clouded, dazed look as he clutched his stomach. He searched for Sephiroth through his darkening vision, his look accusing.  
"Why Sephiroth... why would you...?" Sephiroth returned the look with only his icy stare. The private fell back hitting the ground with a loud thud. All movement within him ceased. Strife was dead.  
Sephiroth, still eerily calm, reached down and pulled the man's wallet out of his pocket, took the Shinra charge card from it, and put it back. He then picked up the man's arm, drug him back into the reactor and tossed him over the side of the bridge into the mako pit below. KiyoYume followed at a wary distance, watching Sephiroth. She stopped on the bridge to observe his actions from a distance.  
He made his way down the the edge of the mako pool and knelt down, placing the Masamune just under the surface of the mako. There was a soft hissing as the Mako began dissolving the blood. Sephiroth then slipped his hands into the mako and washed them. Most SOLDIERS were showered with Mako to enhance their strengths, and it burned. It was a suffering beyond explanation. Sephiroth gave no sign that he was in any pain. He had been dealing with Mako for so long, and had such a high Mako content in his blood that he was simply unaffected; effectively rendering him immune to all forms of Mako poisoning.  
Sephiroth stood, pulling his sword from the pool. The Mako dripped off his sword and hands, much the way oil separates from water, and in seconds they were dry. Sephiroth sheathed his sword and headed back up to the bridge where KiyoYume stood, her face white, her hands trembling as they held his feathers and trench coat. He passed without looking at her, pulling his gloves from his pockets and slipping them on his hands and heading out the reactor door and into the evening.  
The trek down the mountain was not easy to begin with. But the fading light only made matters worse. KiyoYume, having not actually moved in what could have been ages for all Sephiroth knew, was struggling to keep up.  
After stopping to wait for the angel several times, Sephiroth decided it would be faster just to carry her. Without warning he scooped her up, cradling her in his arms, and proceeded down the mountains and a neck breaking pace.  
  
They found themselves on the outskirts of town a short while later. It was just after night fall. Sephiroth paused for a moment debating how on how to get to the truck without attracting any attention.  
KiyoYume turned her face away from the lights of the town, her forehead touching Sephiroth's chest. It was the skin to skin contact. Sephiroth was suddenly aware of emotions that were not his. Distress, sorrow, mourning, weariness.  
'We need you...' he kept feeling over and over, 'I can't save them alone'  
Without willing it, his wing materialized again. What was it that caused this? Sephiroth shook his head and leapt into the air.  
He landed softly several hundred feet away, perching on the peak of a roof to get a good view of the town. There was hardly anybody about, good. The truck happened to be on the other side of town, bad. He scanned the streets around him and then flew to the next roof, and the next.  
He was almost invisible in the dark, moving faster than the human eye could track. A fleeting shadow in the night. Sephiroth made his way across the city unhindered and undetected. At last he dropped down into an alley way and was still. He still held the angel in his arms, silently urging her to stay completely inert.  
Sephiroth listened for a moment then edged his way to the end of the alley and peered around the corner. Clear. There was a blur of movement and then KiyoYume was inside the truck and Sephiroth was quietly closing the door, trench coat in hand. Once he put the trench coat back on, he made a point to meet her curious gaze from the other side of the window.  
Stay.  
Sephiroth headed to a local clothes shop. Using the former driver's Shinra charge card, he purchased two loose fitting robes, and six womens tunics. The ones he picked out were made of soft, flowing material and had to be wrapped and fastened around ones torso. These he figured the angel could wrap between her wings without hindering them. The robes she could use when they encountered other humans and they needed to be covered. Last, a belt. It was a thin silver chain he found on a stand next to the tunics.  
Another shop supplied him with provisions for the trip to the coast. These he purchased on his own money card, a plan already forming on what to tell Shinra when he arrived back at Midgar.  
By the time he made it back to the truck, KiyoYume was sleeping soundly in the passenger seat, curled up inside an old army blanket she had found in the back. She was exhausted. She had not moved in years and her muscles were slowly rebuilding themselves. The general however, was showing no signs of fatigue and drove most of the night.  
  
The next morning when the angel at last stirred, stretched, and ruffled her feathers Sephiroth was driving. She regarded the passing country side with quiet indifference. At last she spoke again, still in Wutaian.  
"What are you?" She repeated Sephiroth's question back at him.  
It was a moment before he was ready to answer.  
"Sephiroth."  
The answer seemed to satisfy her.  
"Where are you taking me?"  
"Midgar." was his flat response.  
He cast a glance at her from the corner of his eye. She was still looking out the window, her vivid blue eyes following the scenery as it flew by.  
"Do you speak Midgarian?" asked Sephiroth.  
"Little."  
Sephiroth nodded as he slowed the truck and stopped. He let KiyoYume wander off to attend to herself and dress. She came back a short while later, her white tunic skillfully wrapped between her wings and fastened with the belt, the blanket folded and in hand. With that the two were on their way again.  
Sephiroth spent the next few hours reviewing the history and culture of Midgar while speaking Midgarian. When he had finished neither really felt like speaking. So the miles of silence rolled past.  
Late in the afternoon Sephiroth stopped again. He and the angel ate a quick lunch. While he refueled the truck from one of large gas cans in the back, the angel walked aways from the truck and stretched, spreading her wings as wide as she could, tensing every muscle; every single feather before she relaxed again.  
KiyoYume could feel this man's aura, and it distressed her. He was a killer, she had not only felt this, but seen it first hand. The blood of thousands were on his hands. He was too detached to care, and to cold to want to (As far as she had seen). At least he wouldn't kill her. This the angel was certain of. He hadn't a reason to kill, nor the desire. Not yet. All too soon she felt a tug inside her.  
We need to keep moving.  
She turned around in time to see Sephiroth finish packing away the gas can and meet his eyes. How odd it was to be able to communicate in such a way. But she could not bring herself to question it. It just seemed right.  
Long after sunset they came to a small town where Sephiroth decided to stop for the night. Before entering the inn, Sephiroth draped one of the robes over KiyoYume's shoulders to cover her wings.  
He stepped through the door and was met with a dimly lit lobby. It was a cozy place, a little tight, but comfortable none-the-less. Small town people had a tendency to lead toward homey things and atmospheres. There was a middle aged woman sitting behind a desk on the far side of the room. She sat slumped down with her chin resting on her chest as though she were asleep.  
"A room." Sephiroth said placing a few gil on the counter. The woman behind the counter started and squinted up to see what sort of traveler had come in so quietly and so late. She started. Tall, dressed in black, silver hair, carried a very long, thin sword, and those eyes... piercing brilliant green that glowed in the dim light of the lobby. She seemed to take no notice of the small angel at his side.  
"General Sephiroth? The Great Sephiroth?"  
The man placed a few more gil on the counter and slid the whole pile toward her.  
"A room." he repeated. Dumbfounded she scooped up the coins and hurried out of the lobby to show them a room.  
She lead them to a humble but well kept room near the back of the building. There was a single bed -which at first puzzled Sephiroth, but he soon dismissed it, figuring the innkeeper had assumed them a couple- a dresser, and a nightstand. Candles where placed here and there throughout the room, though they failed to give off much light. After making sure there was nothing else Sephiroth required she stepped out and quietly closed the door behind her.  
Sephiroth turned to the angel.  
She had already anticipated his question, "I was not looked for, so I was not seen." She shrugged. The matter was simple as that in her eyes.  
Sephiroth crossed the room to stand before the window; arms crossed, weight shifted comfortably to one side, eyes searching for something to focus on.  
"And tell me, angel, how did you wind up under Hojo's care?"  
She shuddered.  
"Do not speak his name! 'Tis blasphemy..."  
Sephiroth cast a quizical glance in her direction. She slipped back into Wutaian mid sentence and he didn't catch the end. She spoke softly but steadily and he found himself drawn in by the sound of her voice.  
"After the evil one was cast down he joined forces with her, with Jenova. Our people's suffering increased as new forces began to govern their realm.  
"I am a healer, not a fighter. My gods believed it would take the work of such to amend things in the mortal realm. I was gifted... though by far the youngest among angels and not very well known or exactly well liked.  
"Regardless, I listened to the cry of the planet and felt the suffering of its people. And so... I left heaven. Once in the mortal realm I encountered The Fallen.  
"I fled and was captured.  
"He attempted to corrupt me, to change me. I resisted and he shattered me..." she paused here, shuddering as if remembering something that she did not want to remember. "And he locked me away until I was ready to submit to his will..."  
"And then I found you." Sephiroth finished for her.  
The angel nodded. "And then you found me." 


	3. Ch 3

Ch 3  
  
Neither had anything to say after KiyoYume's story. The angel stretched out and fell asleep on the bed. Sephiroth stayed at the window a while longer, brooding silently. After a moment he pulled away from the window and looked back at the sleeping angel.  
This was becoming much more complicated than he had expected, and he was certain it was only going to get worse. 'Why should I keep her and pursue the matter? What reason is there?' There wasn't one other than personal interest, and it was more curiosity than anything.  
Sephiroth shook his head. Poor, pathetic Hojo. Having a 'precious specimine' stolen certain wasn't going to sit well. But curiosity was reason enough for Sephiroth; so he decided to stick with it for a while longer and see what came of things.  
Sephiroth moved around the room putting the candles out. Then settleing down into the arm chair, he closed his eyes and drifted into a light sleep.  
Sephiroth woke, but he did not open his eyes. He did not move, did not flinch, did not change the rythm of his breathing. Someone was looking at him and he felt it. Slowly, he raised his right eyelid just enough to allow him to survey the room.  
KiyoYume was sitting on the bed, legs tucked up under her, dressed in another of her tunics, watching him. Their eyes met, Sephiroth's cold penetrating Mako green against her ever lamentful cerulean. The two calmly adressed each other.  
'I'm ready.'  
Are you now? Slight amusement on his part.  
'Yes. I assumed you would want to leave right away,' came her matter-of-fact response.  
After a moment Sephiroth nodded. He rose and lead the way out of the room. KiyoYume followed. Her strength seemed to be coming back and she now walked with a gentle smoothness to her movements. Sephiroth walked straight out to the truck. The sky was a pale gray and the air was still damp. KiyoYume would have liked to stay and watch the sunrise, but such was not Sephiroth's way. They were back in the truck, rumbling along before the sun graced the sky.  
It was around noon that they reached Costa Del Sol. A lively little city on the coast. There was a Shinra military passenger transport ship scheduled to leave at 12:00. Sephiroth planned to catch a ride over to the main continent. On the coast there was a small military outpost, there he would aquire transportaion and ride on to Midgar.  
The air was incredibly hot, and heavy with moisture. A cool breeze blowing in off the ocean made it tolerable. Sephiroth draped one of the robes over KiyoYume's shoulders. It was very large and very loose on her and with her wings pressed to her back he could hardly tell they were there.  
Sephiroth started toward the docks, KiyoYume trailing behind.  
'Remember,' he felt her think, 'I will not be looked for, so I will not be seen.'  
He gave a slight nod to let her know he understood.  
The officer standing on gaurd at the boarding platform saluted to Sephiroth.  
"Lieutenant."  
"Master Sephiroth, sir."  
The man paused and looked past Sephiroth. KiyoYume stepped closer to Sephiroth making sure to stand directly behind him, just in case.  
"Wasn't there another with you, sir?"  
"Things went awry and there was an accident. " Sephiroth said without emotion.  
"Sir! I had no idea, begging your pardon, I didn't mean to pry, sir! I'm sorry, sir, forgive me!" fumbled the leutenant. Sephiroth hid his amusement and nodded to the man as he borded the ship.  
You lied! She seemed more bewildered than accusing.  
I didn't lie.  
Brushing the rest of her thoughts away, he led her into the ship and to the area where the large quarters that were used by the higher ranking soldiers and officers were located. He opened a door and led showing the angel into one of them. There was a small room with a table and kitchen as he first walked in.  
From here he could go to a study, a small, cramped room with a desk and file cabinets; or the bedroom equippted with a bed, a nightstand, a dresser and a bathroom the size of a closet.  
"To get from Costa Del Sol to the west coast of the main continent will take four and a half, maybe five hours. On the coast there is a small military outpost at which we will pick up transportation and make the three hour ride to Midgar. We'll be in Midgar after nightfall most likely, but not by much. Sephiorth informed her as he set down his duffle bag on the table. "Make yourself comfortable but do not leave the room."  
Sephiroth opened up his duffle bag and after retrieving some clean clothes headed to the shower. KiyoYume went sat down in the middle of the bed, cross legged, hands limp in her lap, and began to meditate. She had showered this morning. The angel closed her eyes and felt herself slip into unconscious awareness, into the fullfulling state of mental nothingness. She was open and aware of all things around her, physical, spiritual, and subconcious. Now completely relaxed and at ease, she let her mind drift...  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ flashback ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
KiyoYume prayed. She could not take another day of this hell. For weeks she had been here, locked in the prison, a tiny, little cell, cut off from everything. The sky, the grass, the trees, the sun... She wanted to leave, she needed to leave. The planet needed her.  
Keys jingled and bars clanged as the door slid open. Hojo stood before her, silhoutted by the light behind him. KiyoYume pushed herself to the farthest side of the cell, trying to hide in the corner like a child.  
"No," She pleaded, "Not again."  
Hojo stepped toward her. She cast a shield, even though she knew it would do no good. Hojo hit dead air. He frowned.  
"Please don't do this," he said irritably, "You're only making it harder on yourself." Hojo put his hand to the air and spoke. The wall shattered. "I may be fallen, but I'm still a god." He reached down and gently pulled her to her feet.  
She pulled and jerked but he wouldn't let go. He led her through the hall of cells, which held a myriad of monsters and grotesque experiments, and into his lab. One of the lab assistants came forward with a seringe. He flicked it twice with his middle finger and then drove the needle into KiyoYume's neck.  
She wimped and tryed to jerk away again, but Hojo held her fast.  
She felt her body go numb and lock up. Hojo carefully laid her on a table stomach down. She cried as he stretched out her wings. To touch an angel's wings... to break all personal laws and rules. It was torture to let him run his hands over her wings, to let him stroke the soft feathers while searching for a place to inject more Jenova cells. But she was powerless, completely paralyzed by both medicine and magic.  
KiyoYume winced as six inches of steel needle was forced under the skin. The instant the Jenova left the seringe it was fire. A nasuiating, corrosive pain that ate at her from the inside out. It raced along her viens and tore at her inside, trying to corrupt and change whatever it encountered. 'Gods, spare me, help me, save me, let the pain end!' She prayed silently over and over. She could feel the Mako and the Jenova confronting each other, attacking each other inside her, and it was agony. She bit down on her lips to keep from screaming untill she tasted blood, clenched her hands into fists untill they wet and slick with the same, and still the torment did not end.  
Hojo turned her over, injecting still more Jenova into her arms, neck, sides, legs; all the while talking soothingly. His voice was full of comfort and concern. "Hush my little lab rat, the pain will pass. Embrace the change." But his eyes... his eyes were alight with the pleasure of this nefarious event. As if somewhere deep within his fractured core, he recieved enjoyment from her pain, pleasure from seeing her writhe in agony before him, and satisfaction that this misery was dispensed by his hands.  
After this he finished, Hojo carried her back to her cell and set her on the concrete flor. She would have crawled away had she been able too.  
He sat down inside the open cell with her, leaning back against the wall.  
"You know, my little specimine, I hear you at praying at night. Perhaps I'm the only god who hears you."  
The angel began to shake and convulse, her body reacting violently against the Jenova.  
"I know you would object if you could." Hojo reached out a hand and stroked her hair, smiling to himself.  
"I desire nothing more than to create a superior race. I do not want the Cetra, your very ancestors, to vanish. All I wanted was to help them compete in an evolving world. Is it so wrong?"  
KiyoYume curled inward, shaking uncontrollably. The Mako forces at full fledged war with the newly injected Jenova.  
"Jenova is full of life." Hojo continued, mindless of what she was enduring, "It holds all kinds of helpful abilities; extended life, stronger physical and mental abilties, it sharpens your mind, quickens your reactions-"  
"You... lose your... mind." KiyoYume muttered through clenched teeth.  
"Ah, but my sweet little lab rat, I'm working on this. There's nothing wrong with evoloution."  
"You're... you're forcing it!"  
"It would happen anyway." Hojo shrugged off.  
"Not without Jenova." She managed to get out.  
Hojo paused for only a second, "That may be, but without Jenova none of this creation would have happened. What a loss!"  
KiyoYume twisted back and rolled over, vomitting. Her body rejecting the Jenova again. Hojo shook his head.  
"Maybe I'll put you aside for a while, you're far to precious a specimine to waste when I havn't perfected my technique. When I've finished, not even your body will be able to reject Jenova cells."  
  
She was taken to Mount Nible a few days later. Hojo had made a special chamber just for her. A special pod, and had special equipment set up, Mako purified. He'd been planning this for a while.  
The angel stood inside the pod, naked and exposed, Mako slowly filtering in, swirlling around her ankles. Hojo clicked the lock shut with resounding finality. She put her hands to the glass and looked out; the tremendous sorrow on her face doing nothing to phase the god.  
'How long?' She wondered, 'How long will I be in here?'. Hojo smiled. "I'll come for you when I'm finished with my reserch, sleep well." He turned and walked out of the room, sealing the door behind him.  
She sat down, and drew her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them, resting her chin on her knees. The Mako had risen to her mid calfs and tingled pleasently aginst her skin. She closed her eyes, the Mako rising to her chin. She held her breath as it continued to rise, submerging her. When the pod was completely filled, she opened her eyes and exhaled. It filled her with peace to be close to the planet's blood again. She breathed it in, drawing strength from it, and calm. Slowly she driffted off into a dark heavy sleep.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Angel. Angel?  
KiyoYume's eyes flew open, and seeing him in front of her panic seized her. She scrambled backwards, falling, slipping and sheilding her face with her arms, reciting prayers in Wutaian. He threw his weight ontop of her to hold her still, his hand clamped down over her mouth to keep her silent. His face hovered inches over hers. She looked up into piercing aqua eyes.  
Be still angel!  
She went limp. It was Sephiroth, not Hojo. Instinctivly she kept murmmring in Wutaian over and over, her body shaking uncontrollably. Sephiroth slowly began to untense. Black feathers drifted through the air, landing on the bed around him. His muscles loosened and his weight settled. He hid her face in his shirt near his collar bone to stifle the noise of her prayers.  
He had to hide the noise, he had to hide her. If he were to be discovered here and now things would get very messy. He had no desire to fight with Shinra. True, Shinra and his forces were too weak to do any real damage, but they would still be a great annoyance he would rather not deal with. And if their discovery was due to the angel's petty little episode, he knew he would kill her with his bare hands. But he didn't feel much like doing that either, he still had questions she had yet to answer.  
Calm down.  
She drew several deep breaths, each more calm and composed than the last. When Sephiroth was satisfied with her state of mind he drew himself to his knees and her with her. Releasing her from his hold he took a hand and brushed her hair out of her face, so he could look her in the eyes, so that what he would say would have the most impact. He was dead serious, and he wanted to be sure she knew it.  
Not a sound.  
She nodded, paused and studied his face, realization dawning on the angel as she did.  
'You're Hojo's son aren't you?'  
She was met with harsh silence. There was a slight tense in Sephiroth's jaw.  
What do you know? He asked coldly; not hating or angry even, just devoid of emotion.  
KiyoYume winced visibly, almost as if he had struck her.  
'So...' He thought,' She can see the resemblance. It would expain, at least, why she had panicked.'  
KiyoYume sighed, her eyes uncontrollably wondering to his wing. Figureing it pointless, he let her stare. She would have liked to reach out and touch it, to prove to herself its existance. But that was taboo. Angel's wings were considered an intimate item. Never would she touch his wing unless invited.  
Sephiroth stood and turned his back to her. KiyoYume rubbed her face with a hand, her mind racing. There was something she was missing, something she should have caught by now... There was a subtle jerk throughout the ship, and all movement ceased.  
KiyoYume swung her legs over the side of the bed, her bare feet touching the cold floor. Sephiroth picked up the duffle bags and his sword and headed out the door. KiyoYume closing it softly after him. They headed to the military outpost in which they were able to pick up transportation.  
The angel watched as Sephiroth strapped the duffle bag onto the side of the motocycle. When he finished, he took his position as driver, and as soon as KiyoYume was sitting comfortably behind him with her arms locked around his middle, they were gone.  
It was a quarter past seven when the arived in Midgar. Sephiroth turned the bike into the military garage and the two of them walked through the streets in silence.  
The grey clouds covered the sky, bleak and dreary. A mild, but steady rain began to fall. They reached Sephiroth's apartment wet, but not drenched.  
His apartment was large, but simple. The floors were a polished black stone with red viens, and the walls were a darker shade of grey. He had shelves of books in every room as well as display cases for his collection of swords. The furniture was practicle, usefull not decorative, but in good taste. Desks, tables, couches, chairs, and lamps were scattered throughout every room.  
Sephiorth led KiyoYume to the bathing room and gave her a fresh tunic. He left her alone, going to change in his room. He entered the master bedroom; cleaned up, dried off, and changed from his uniform into something more casual.  
He was just getting ready to sit down in the living room when the phone rang. Sephiroth picked up the reciever and listened.  
"You're home."  
"Yes."  
"I need to speak with you."  
"Tomarrow." Sephiroth moved to hang up.  
"No. Now." Hojo demanded loud enough to be heard.  
Sephiroth set the reciever back in its cradle and walked into the other room, picking up his Masamune and trench coat off the back of the couch.  
"I have to go." he called to KiyoYume, "I'll be back soon, don't leave." He shut the door and left.  
  
A while latter KiyoYume left the bathing room, slipping on the tunic Sephiroth had given her. She didn't like this. Something was wrong. She could feel it. She walked back and forth through the apartment, pacing; her anxiety unexplainable.  
  
Sephiroth stepped off the train and headed toward the Shinra buidling. He made his way to one of the top floors. Hojo's lab. Beyond it was his office. Sephiroth made his way through the lab, the creatures in the cages cowering or clawing at him as he walked by.  
Sephiroth opened the door and walked into Hojo's office.  
"Ahh, Sephiroth!" Hojo stood to greet the general.  
"This had better be important."  
"I trust the mission went well?" Hojo asked, brushing aside Sephiroth's acrimony and sitting down as Sephiroth walked toward him and stopped before his desk.  
"Well enough. I'll give you a report tomarrow." Sephiroth shifted his weight, feeling adgitated. "I'll give you a report tomarrow."  
"Since you're here you may as well sit and tell me about it now."  
"I would prefer to write it, I didn't intent to stay long in the first place."  
"Sit already, if you tell me now you'll be saving yourself time in the long run."  
"I'll stand."  
"You know, if you really arn't feeling up to this, I could always call private... what was his name? You know, the one I assaigned to accompany you."  
"Strife is dead." Sephiroth said listlessly.  
"What? What happened?" the scientist demanded.  
Sephiroth sighed, this could take some time.  
  
The angel shivered. Something was deffinetly wrong. "Gods hear my prayer! Be with me, protect me, give me strength. May Leviathan the mighty sweep away my enemies with a wave of malice and justice!" She whispered in Wutaian.  
There was the click and twist of a lock pick in the lock of the front door. KiyoYume started and ran for the next room, panic seasing her. She pressed her back to the wall and slid down to a sitting postion so as to hear who came in. The door swung open and three maybe four people walked into the apartment, closing the door behind them.  
"Ok Tseng, what are we looking for? What could the big bad Sephiroth have stashed away that would make Hojo so edgy?"  
"Anything unusual. Hojo said we'll know if we find what he suspects to be here."  
"You know, I always wanted an excuse to get inside Seph's apartment and mess things up!"  
If she moved now, she would give herself away, but if she stayed where she was, they would find her. The angel closed her eyes and silently prayed to Levithlan again and again, hoping she hadn't heard what she thought she had heard. 'Gods, don't let it really be Tseng...' She listened as the footsteps headed in diffrent directions, one pair coming her way. She felt a shadow fall over her.  
"Well well, look what we have here. Hey Tseng!"  
KiyoYume opened her eyes and looked up to see a man with messy red hair. He was sloppily clothed in a blue suit, the coat unbuttoned and the white shirt half tucked in. When he bent down to get a closer look at her, she could smell the heavy stench of alcohol on his breath, though he was perfectly sober.  
The other Turks showed up one at a time. There were four of them all together, three men and a woman.  
"Its Hojo's angel!" the blonde woman gapped, "How'd she get loose?"  
"I am not Hojo's angel!" KiyoYume interjected.  
"Hmph, keep thinking that." she snorted.  
"Hey Tseng, can we have some fun?" asked the red head. All eyes turned the Wutaian standing back from the group. He ran a hand through his long black hair and sighed, closing his eyes to he sight before him.  
"Do as you will."  
"Tseng!" KiyoYume lept to her feet and trying to reach him. The third man, who was tall and dark skinned with a shaved head, large muscles, and black sunglasses, reached out with one hand and shoved her back against the wall, pressing just hard enough to keep here there. The Wutaian crossed his arms, and let his eyes wonder in another direction.  
"Tseng!" she wailed, "Tseng, how could you have fallen so far, how can you turn your back on one of your own?" The angel's panic began to rise. The red head began to laugh.  
"Tseng! Tseng!" He mimicked her voice, throughing his into a high pitched squeel before bursting into laughter again. "Tseng ain't gona save you!"  
"Hey Reno!" the blonde piped up looking at the red head, "Show her your scars! You too Rude, I'll hold her." The woman moved to take Rude's place as Reno took off his coat and unbuttoned his shirt. Rude followed, more slowly.  
What was revealed were wings. They were black and featherless. The leathery skin between the bones torn, tattered, in shreds. KiyoYume cringed at the sight of them.  
"Tseng, he's fallen just like us, he can't help you, although he wouldn't even if he could." Reno smirked. "So angel, tell us, how is you are still alive?"  
"What? What do you mean?" she asked struggled against Elena's hold.  
"Well seeing as no one wants you alive, I just figured you'd get a clue and you know... do something about it."  
"The gods don't even want you!" Elena added as she let Rude take over. He held both her arms, gripping the upper portion of them and pulling them slightly back and up, drawing her to the balls of her feet, forcing her to depend on him to stand.  
"They've forsaken you!"  
"Th- Thats not true!" the angel stammered  
"Isn't it? Why don't they answer your prayers?"  
KiyoYume faltered. Reno and Elena shot each other sly looks and smiled inwardly.  
"They don't hear you."  
"They don't love you."  
"They don't even want you!"  
"Never did." They drew closer, their tone consistant mockery and seriousness.  
"So go ahead, end it all!" Reno was close enough now to whisper. "You are a waste of spirit energy."  
"I'm not!" she cried angryly.  
Reno and Elena began to laugh.  
"You're worthless!"  
"You have no use, no purpose." Reno continued.  
"There are a thousand other angels in the etheric, all of whom could do whatever you're hear to do far better than you. Hell, I could probably do it better than you."  
"Get away from me! Go away! Leave this place!" KiyoYume yelled. She pulled, trying to get away from Rude, but slipped, hanging by her arms scrambling to get her feet back under her. It brought only more laughter. Even Rude, who had been listening silently, chuckled.  
"You think that getting angry will help?" Elena taunted.  
"You're pathetic and powerless." As if on cue Rude tightend his grip, slowly crushing KiyiYume's small arms. Reno walked forward and took hold of her chin with one hand.  
"Worthless... and powerless." he leered. KiyoYume wouldn't meet his eyes. He bent his head and tilted it to get a better look at her face. Her blue eyes darted away from his. He straightened and jerked her chin up and forced her to look him in the face.  
"I think it's time you learned just how powerless."  
  
"-The monster attacked, and Stife was seriously injured. He backed up and fell into the Mako pit. I couldn't save him." Sephiroth paused. He felt something tug at his insides again. Probably just KiyoYume getting nervous, he brushed it aside. "Since there was nothing left to do, I came home." He concluded.  
"I see..." Hojo muttered, his mind wandering back to the report Sephiroth had just given. "Thats all very interesting. And you're sure you didn't see anything out of place in the Mako reactor?"  
There is was again... that odd pull. Through out the report it had become an increasing annoyance.  
Hush! Be still.  
"Something the matter Sephiroth?"  
Sephiroth snapped back into the reality of the moment. "No. I just have something at home that needs my attention."  
"Ahh... well, by all means, you're dismissed." Hojo said waving a hand towards the door. "It was not my intention to keep you so long."  
Sephiroth kept his thoughts from his lips and nodded his assent before leaving. The train ride home was rather unsettling. Sephiroth felt her calling his name, again and again. There was a desperation that tainted the feeling, and it was continueally growing. As he was getting off the train it began to ease; to slowly just diminish into an ache.  
Sephiroth entered the apartment, avoiding the elevator as it would be faster for him to take the stairs. When he reached the top floor he found the door to his apartment open. He entered and closed it behind him. The voices coming from the other room paused.  
"What was that?"  
"How the hell should I know?"  
Sephiroth moved through the apartment and stood in the doorway leading to the next room. Reno backed away from a corner and Elena and Rude just stared.  
Elena and Rude both said something in Wutaian and vanished. Reno laughed and wipped his mouth.  
"Tseng, the master of the lair is home, perhaps we should head out. We've got all we came for anyway."  
Sephiroth narrowed his eyes into an unforgiving stare. He brought the Masamune into view and jerked on the hilt, bringing about six inches of steel out of the sheath. Reno shot Sephiroth an amused but mocking look, and after a few quick words vanished. Tseng, who was leaning on a wall oposite the door opened his eyes and looked at Sephiroth, shook his head, and vanished.  
Sephiroth slid the Masamune back into its sheath, walked further into the room and looked to the corner Reno had so hastily backed away from. Sephiroth could not keep the grim expression from his face.  
KiyoYume lay on her side half curled, sobbing bitterly. Her arms were drawn up to her chest to cover the exposed skin where her tunic had been torn. Her wings were half spread behind her, rumpled laying askew; here and there feathers stuck out in odd directions. She was bleeding in several places and brusies could be seen forming on her arms and legs.  
When she saw Sephiroth she shut her eyes and angled her face towards the floor. Sephiroth walked toward the angel, stopping within inches of her torn and broken body, and looked down at her. The angel could do nothing by lay at his feet and cry. 


	4. Ch 4

CH 4

Sephiroth held KiyoYume's face in his hands firmly but gently. He looked into each eye carefully. She tried to focus on his materializing wing. She didn't want to look him in the face.

"Are you dizzy?"

"No."

"Does your head hurt?"

"No."

"Is your eyesight blurred?"

"No."

He moved his hands down her neck, his fingers feeling along her vertebra for anything out of place. She winced as his palm bumped a bloody spot on her tunic. Sephiroth pulled away the tunic with his index finger to get a better look.

"Are these teeth marks?"

KiyoYume looked away.

"Are they?" he pressed.

She voice was weak, as if she were ashamed of the answer, but she did answer: "Yes."

"Mmm," came his indifferent response. Sephiroth then felt along her arms and legs. He paid special attention to her back, her wrists, and her ankles, searching for any fractures or breaks. His fingers were experienced but unkind. At last he stood up and looked down at the pitiful sight before him. The angel sat on the floor, leaning against the wall for support. Her dull white hair fell in wisps around her face and in front of her now closed eyes. Her feathered wings failed to lay neatly behind her and her breathing came in deep but shuddering draws and exhales. He was merciless.

"Can you stand?"

KiyoYume opened her eyes, blinked, and looked up at him. She then slowly but dutifully climbed to her feet by aid of the wall.

"It seems aside from a few scrapes and bruises most of the damage is mental. You'll be fine." Sephiroth lead KiyoYume to the nearest couch where he had laid the Masamune and gloves earlier. He now took off his coat and laid it next to the sword.

He went to the nearest bathroom and laid out several clean towels and a new clean tunic. He turned on the hot water and let it run while he went back through the apartment for KiyoYume. He led her back to the bathroom and shut the door behind them.

The angel didn't move, expecting him to say something and leave, but after several seconds of stillness Sephiroth advanced and attempted to peel away the bloody tunic. She batted his hands away and backed to the wall; her accusing eyes displaying a mixture of confusion and fear.

"Be sensible. I'm just going to mend the damage." A dangerous irritation laced Sephiroth's voice. The angel ceded her clothing and climbed into the tub without a word. Sephiroth washed her wounds with a gentleness that surprised her. _'What has changed?' _she kept thinking to herself.

"Nothing," Sephiroth's reply broke the stifling quiet; "You are a tool. A valuable one, but a tool none-the-less. However you can be of no use to me in such a state of mental disarray. It is important to keep all of one's tools and assets in top condition. I would treat a sword or a book no differently."

This didn't come as much of a surprise to KiyoYume, but it did hurt. Though her mind was wondering and she wasn't paying that much attention to him anyway. She sat in the tub, staring numbly at the wall. Sephiroth wasn't sure if she was in shock from what he said, or from earlier events. In truth, she was not in his reality.

KiyoYume stood before the All Father. He was speaking to her, but she could not make out his words. The other gods were standing behind him, looking at her earnestly. Some of them were speaking as well. The angle could not understand them either.

"I can't hear you!" She cried urgently, "I can't hear you!" over and over again. Still they spoke.

Sephiroth hauled her out of the now Luke-Warm water and wrapped her in a towel. She blinked her eyes and looked at him as if she had just woken and was seeing him for the first time in many days. Sephiroth paused, caught up completely by her eyes, KiyoYume suffering the same. They stood, eyes locked. KiyoYume blinked again, turning her head away as she did, breaking the link. She still could not bear his gaze.

"It must be because I'm forsaken," she mumbled, "That is why I cannot hear them." Sephiroth drained the water from the tub and left her to change.

_Not only is my angel a miserable heap of self-loathing sorrow and forsakenness, but now she's delusional. Surely she wasn't always like this. Surely not all angels are like this... if they are, its no wonder the Planet is going to hell. I wonder if it has something to do with what Hojo did to her? I should consult Reno._

A slow, sly smile spread across his face as a plan began to take shape. He knew the Turks wouldn't dare return to the apartment. So long as KiyoYume stayed here she would be safe; and KiyoYume was in no condition to go anywhere, so he wouldn't have to worry about that. Sephiroth picked up his gloves and put them on, followed by his trench coat.

KiyoYume walked into the room tying the waist of a robe shut.

_'Are you leaving?'_ Her thoughts were not troubled, but more a desire not to be left out of the loop. She seemed to know Sephiroth had scared the Turks off and they would not be back.

"I have business to attend to." He met her eyes briefly, picked up the Masamune, and left.

KiyoYume went into the kitchen. She found the glasses and set one on the counter. She then opened the ice box. Its contents were sparse, but what was there was fresh. She took out the milk, poured herself a glass, and returned it to the ice-box. She stood in the kitchen along time, sipping her glass of milk. When she had finished, she rinsed her glass and left it in the sink. She then found a guest bedroom and crawled into bed and fell asleep.

Sephiroth counted the steps. He would be bypassing all security by taking the back way into Shinra Inc. How utterly stupid, yet convenient, to leave the back door wide open.

Reno's secretary would still be in, he was fairly certain of that. Not that Reno needed a secretary. He answered directly to Hojo, but due to his deep aversion to paper work, Hojo set someone up to do it for him. Sephiroth had it on good authority that she did more than paper work for Reno.

Sephiroth stopped. This was his floor. He opened the door and peaked into the room. It was late and so only the most dedicated Shinra employees were still around. Sephiroth kept to the shadows, remaining unseen. He drew close to her desk, approaching from her back, and waited. People filtered out slowly, but the secretary remained at her desk working slowly, checking the time on her watch every so often. When at last she was alone, save for the guards, she stood up and stretched. She was tall and lithe with blonde hair wrapped tightly in a bun. She let it down and the curly waves fell just past her shoulders.

Sephiroth's hand moved from his Masamune to a holster at his waste. He drew out his gun and adjusted the silencer. Three quick shots and the patrolling guards were down. The secretary looked around, suddenly alarmed. What had she just heard? Her eyes darted around nervously. She sat back down after a few moments, still wary of the shadows.

Sephiroth put the gun away for the moment and drew his sword. Guns were such a waste of technique; this however was necessary, it was all part of the plan. He drew the Masamune and walked up behind the secretary. He slipped it in front of her. She gasped, and stood, but before she could do anything else he pressed the blade to her neck and slipped his free arm around her waist, pulling her slightly toward him, keeping her off balance and under his control.

"It won't do you any good. No one's around to hear you."

"What do you want?" her voice quivered.

"Information."

"I don't know much! I only work for Shinra indirectly, and Hojo doesn't tell me anything... I only file paperwork."

"I don't care about them at the moment. What can you tell me about Reno?" Sephiroth felt her body go rigid. He could almost hear her teeth grinding as she locked her jaw. He'd hit home. Sephiroth made sure she could feel the cold metal against the warm skin of her neck.

"I... Anything, but don't kill me please."

"Where does Reno live?"

"I don't.... I don't know, I've... I can't remember."

"You're lying."

"I... we... he lives on the plate, of course, and he lives above sector 4, and," she spoke quickly, and brokenly, fear making her jittery, "It's a pretty low key apartment, so as not to arouse suspicion, not leased by Shinra... and Hojo, Hojo set the deal up! I don't know anymore, talk to him."

"I'm not interested in Hojo. Tell me more about Reno."

"Umm... he lives... he lives on the west side of the building. In the basement, it's a sub-floor no one is supposed to know about."

"Good."

"Please let me go... I don't want to die, please, please," she backed up and pressed herself against Sephiroth, moving as far away from the blade as she could get. "I'll do anything, _anything._" She tried to twist her head to see behind her to peer up at Sephiroth through her lashes. She couldn't make out his face, though she could see the soft glow from his Mako eyes, everything else was shrouded in shadow. "Reno doesn't keep me around for nothing."

Sephiroth's lips twitched in slight amusement at her desperation. He leaned close and whispered into her ear, his hot breath causing her to shiver. "I have no need or desire for that which you offer." He applied still more pressure to the blade and a bead of blood began to pool onto the metal.

"But I..." She faltered, realizing that she was completely at his mercy, mercy being one of the things Sephiroth did not often exercise. Her eyes slowly scanned the room in a last desperate attempt to find help. Her vision was blurred by the new forming tears, but she was sure no one was there. She felt his breath leave her neck. The sword left next, followed by the sound of it's sheathing. There was the click of a gun being cocked, and the cold metal of its barrel against the back of her head. She closed her eyes, whispered "Oh, God..."

KiyoYume winced in her sleep as if someone had stabbed her.

An hour later Sephiroth returned to find her resting peacefully. He poured himself a glass of red wine and drank it as he cleaned his blade. He then changed and went to sleep.

The next morning he woke early. On his way to the kitchen he saw KiyoYume staring out the apartment window at the city. She had a glass of warm milk in her hands.

_Have you eaten?_

She shook her head. "Angels don't really need to eat. We are sustained by the energy of the planet."

Sephiroth nodded and continued on into the kitchen. He fixed himself a small breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast. When he had finished he showered. After showering he dressed and set upon his paper work.

KiyoYume sat on a couch and watched him. He sat in a straight-backed wooden chair and worked diligently on his report to Hojo. He set a good pace and kept it for quite a while. The only noise in the apartment was the sound of Sephiroth's pen scratching against the paper as he explained away Strife's disappearance in his sharp, clear handwriting, broken occasionally by the sound of shuffling pages.

KiyoYume tensed and looked at the door as the stillness was broken by a loud knock. She hurried off to another room as Sephiroth stood and walked across the room and opened the door.

"President Shinra." He said by means of greeting.

"Ah... Sephiroth, we need to talk to you. It is very important."

Sephiroth made no move to open the door any wider or let President Shinra and his host of body guards in. Shinra fidgeted nervously.

"Perhaps we might come in? Such things should not be talked about in the open."

Sephiroth raised his eyebrows to display curiosity. He let them inside. Shinra sat as his body guards posted themselves by the door.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?" Sephiroth asked as he crossed his arms and leaned against a nearby bookcase. It was impossible to tell if he was being casual or cruel.

"That's not quite funny as it should be." Shinra started, "We think that we were assaulted last night by some radical group from the slums. How they ever got in we don't know, but there has been a horrible murder. Well, a massacre really. We thought you might recognize the style."

"So you want me to come and look at it?"

"Yes."

Sephiroth made something akin to a sigh and walked into the other room and retrieved his trench coat and his Masamune. KiyoYume was no where in sight. Good. He was sure she wouldn't have to worry about her while he was out.

He returned to find Shinra thumbing through a book. Sephiroth cleared his throat and Shinra almost dropped the book he was holding. After several seconds of fumbling with it he managed to put it back on the shelf. He smiled weakly at Sephiroth.

"Sorry, everyone around the office is kinda edgy."

"Shall we?" Sephiroth gestured to the door.

They left the apartment and about 15 minutes later arrived at the Shinra Inc. building.

"Look here," Shinra pointed to a security camera, "They used Thunder Materia to short out all the cameras, so we don't even have a clue as to what they look like."

After ascending to one of the upper floors and passing through the yellow tape and guard patrol they were met with a gruesome sight.

Paperwork was scattered, chairs had been thrown across the room, desks had been tipped over. The floors three patrolling guards had been shot in the head, killed instantly. Blood splatter covered the walls and furniture. There were smears and handprints everywhere, trails of blood lead to hacked off body parts which were spread throughout the office. The walls displayed hundreds of bullet holes. Marked on one wall in green spray paint that ran, mixing with the red blood, were the words: "Avenge the Planet; Down with Shinra!" As a grand finale the severed head of Reno's secretary was hanging from the ceiling.

Aware of Shinra's scrutinizing eyes, Sephiroth kept a grim expression. He paid careful attention to severed limbs and critically observed paper work, and blood splatter. He then came to the severed head. The woman's pretty blonde hair was splattered with blood. In the back of her skull was a bullet hole. President Shinra looked away.

After several moments of silence the president cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably.

"Well?"

"It seems to me you are indeed dealing with a band of radicals. Take for instance the graffiti on the wall there." He paused and pointed to a limb lying close by, "And then there are factors like these: see the way the limb was removed from the body? It was shot until it was more or less perforated and then simply torn off."

"What about the cameras? Such a killer certainly wouldn't have the skill to take them out with materia... would they?"

Sephiroth thought about that for a moment. "Some of the troops receive specialized training before entering combat during the Wutain war. It is possible you have an angry veteran who's joined a band of fanatics. They'd willingly accept him due to the fact he could give them valuable information on building layouts, Shinra tactics, and of course, bring specialized training to the group that could come in handy at times such as these.

"I would suggest you replace the cameras as soon as possible, double the guards, and send word of this attack to all Shinra related buildings across the continent."

Shinra nodded enthusiastically. "Thank you Sephiroth."

Sephiroth shifted his weigh and crossed his arms. "And Shinra, Sir. I strongly recommend you pay more attention to the back door. Its practically an invitation for terrorist groups such as these. It's a wonder we haven't been attacked sooner."

"Ahh, of course, Sephiroth, I'll get right on it..."

"Will you be needing me for anything else then? I'm off duty for the next few days."

"Of course, I'm sorry, I'd forgotten. No, go home and rest up, and when you come back we'll discuss further improvements, eh?"

Sephiroth nodded and took his leave. On his way down one of the halls to the elevators he encountered Reno. They locked eyes. Sephiroth gave him only a second of acknowledgement, just long enough to make sure Reno knew the message was meant for him. The demon smoldered as Sephiroth walked past.

KiyoYume sat on the couch, facing the back, peering over the top. Her wings hung off the end, not quite touching the floor. She was staring intently at the door. Sephiroth entered. He paid her no attention. He changed out of his trench coat, gloves, boots, and had put his Masamune away. He then sat back down at his desk and resumed his work.

"Why did you do it?" came the angel's soft voice. Sephiroth paused in his work. He set the pen down and turned around the face her. She met his gaze with her own demure, lucid eyes, which after a short while she turned towards the window.

"Reno now knows that there are repercussions for his actions." Sephiroth went back to his paperwork. How could this man be so undisturbed by the shedding of innocent blood, especially when it was avoidable?! KiyoYume focused all her attention out window; she didn't want to think about that now. She wanted to be outside, to be close to nature again. It'd been so long.

_No._

KiyoYume glanced back at Sephiroth. He had not even skipped a beat, or slowed in his work.

_You are to stay here._

_'What shall I do for the remainder of the day then?'_

_Make yourself useful, but stay out of the way._

KiyoYume sighed and got up; meandering through the apartment, looking through the books on the shelves. The only thing she could think of would be to catch herself up on how the people of this modern world thought. What had become of her race anyway? Why were there no more Cetra? She hadn't felt any since she had come to this world, even before Hojo had found her. She at last found what she was looking for: _Cetra, and other ancient beings of the Planet: 4th Edition._

KiyoYume went back to the room in which Sephiroth was still hard at work at his desk. She felt inexplicably safe when she was near him, even if he didn't seem to care much for her personally. He may as well hate her, but he would keep her safe because he could use her to further his own ends, and that gave the angel a strong sense of security, however disturbing. Comfort was another matter all together.

KiyoYume sighed and opened the book.

"_Chapter One: What were the Cetra? ..."_

Most of the book was a great deal of speculation and some of it was entirely made up. Hardly anything was accurate or true, which was a shame, because the history of the Cetra was so very interesting. Fighting Demons born of corrupt life stream, praising and coming into contact with the gods, being able to work magic without the aid of materia...

After Sephiroth had finished his paperwork and filed everything away he headed back into the kitchen for a brief lunch. When he had finished he went back out into the main room to observe the angel. She was seated on the couch and had not moved in a very long while. She was absorbed in a rather large book, the look on her face shifting from amusement to sorrow or disgust every once in a while.

"What are you reading?"

"History." The angel answered without looking up as she turned a page.

Sephiroth scoffed, "History?"

"Mainly what your people think the Cetra were and what happened to them. I'm just now getting the Wutain War. It's such a shame the last great peoples on the earth were put down, my people... But not without a great deal of help from you, though, as I understand it." She glanced up at him from over the top of her book, her eyes accusing. She would have mustered up malice, or even hate, had she been looking at anyone else.

Sephiroth brushed her comment aside. His questions would be answered first, and then hers, if he even felt like it at all. He didn't have to justify, much less confirm or negate himself to this creature.

"So what _did_ happen the Cetra?" he pursued his original topic of interest.

KiyoYume closed the book and after a moment looked up at Sephiroth, "They found the promised land."

Well concealed in a dark alley across from the Shinra building Sephiroth waited patiently. He could wait all night if he had to. But he knew that would not be necessary. The Sense materia glowed softly in his hands. His prey would be coming out of those doors at any moment. He tensed his muscles and relaxed them.

There was always that primitive rush of adrenaline and excitement when he hunted. Such an invigorating, primordial feeling, it was almost liberating. He watched the doors with attentive predatory eyes. The materia flickered again. He crouched in the shadows and continued to wait. Not long now at all.

Reno pushed open the door and strode out of the building and onto the walkway. 'What a long day' he thought as he walked toward the train station. His secretary had been murdered he knew for certain, as a warning. Sephiroth was not happy, and Reno knew this, but he had not expected the repercussions to be so sudden or sever. The rest of the day had been spent in mild paranoia and great tension. He was not feeling well; what he needed was a drink.

Reno headed toward the train station, and ultimately toward his favorite bar.

He had no earthly idea why this angel was so important to Hojo. She was just some lowly angel anyway, well, not _that _lowly. She had been promised to Tseng. Gods only knew why. Although she was unusually empathetic, her abilities in that area being stronger than most other angels, there was nothing particularly special about her. She was a nobody: just your ordinary angel, born of common breeding stalk. Not a spec of royalty or nobility in her. She was an odd ball anyway. But there was something about this one. She had to be more than she seemed.

Hojo was furious that he'd lost her and Sephiroth was even more so that she'd been found and... tampered with. A sly smile spread across Reno's face as he savored the memory. Although Sephiroth probably did not yet understand the specific importance of her to Hojo, he knew it had to be _something _important to have been guarded so carefully. It didn't matter, she was now broken and would be of no further use. But at least he'd enjoyed breaking her. It wasn't something he got to do often.

Reno stopped, cocked his head to the side and listened. He shook it and kept walking. 'It is only my imagination, too much stress for one day. There is no one following me,' he reassured himself. But... there it was again; the feeling that he was being watched and followed. He shivered and turned around. It's nothing he told himself again.

To prove it to himself he walked back the way he had come a bit. Reno looked down the nearest alley, nothing. He cautiously approached a group of trashcans, and then proceeded to kick them all over. Nothing. He turned and headed back toward the bar... toward sweet liquor.

He let his thoughts drift back to KiyoYume again. The angel hadn't been bad looking. She was a pretty, lithe, little creature, the gods had sculpted her well. Reno licked his lips and savored the memory. His hands moving across her smooth flesh, her terrified cries, the broken look in her eyes, the sweet, sweet taste of her mouth...

A screech and a loud crunch interrupted Reno's thoughts. A nearby mailing post had been crumpled... He looked around. No one, but he was at the train station.

Soon a soft rumble could be heard from down the tracks and the train pulled into view shortly after. Once it stopped and the doors opened he got on, but not after scanning the area behind him. The station was deserted, he was completely alone.

He stepped into the train and took a seat near the front of the car. There was no around save a stack of old newspapers someone had left on a seat nearby. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes as the train pulled away from the station noisily. The rough swaying motion made it impossible to actually sleep or get anywhere near, but his eyes were so tired.

There was a muffled crash inside the car. He snapped his head up and opened his eyes, looking around. The stack of newspapers had been knocked over somehow and now lay scattered about the floor of the train car. Reno looked around suspiciously. There was no one in the car, and with the white plastic benches against the walls, there was no where for anyone to hide. He kept his eyes open for several more minutes before finally giving up and closing them again. Soon... soon he would be at the bar.

He felt the lights go out. The scanning; such a pathetic attempt on Shinra's part to weed out intruders. It wouldn't last forever. Sooner or later someone would get through.

The hair on Reno's neck began to stand up. He opened his eyes. It was total darkness save for the occasional flashing of the red scanning lights. There... directly on the other side of the car, was the glow of Mako eyes, soft aqua green. Only when the red lights flashed on Reno could see Sephiroth sitting there, a smug grin on his face. Reno began to sweat. And then, the lights stopped, and the regular florescents tried to come back on, flickering. With each spell of darkness, Sephiroth was there, and in the light he was gone. At last, they stayed on, the white light giving the car a bleak and empty look. Reno blinked and looked around nervously. No trace of anyone. "God do I need a drink."

Reno swung his head back and downed the liquor. He set the glass back on the counter with a loud 'thunk' and ran a hand through his hair, pushing the red mess out of his face. He always felt better when he drank. A slender teenager on the other side of the counter with large breasts and long brown hair tied loosely back in a pony tale walked over to where he was sitting. She whipped her hands on her apron.

"Another refill sir?"

"Damn straight." Though Reno had has several drinks already, he was not in the least bit tipsy. He inspected the young waitress carefully through his bangs.

"You're new here aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Of all the places in Midgar a babe like you could get a job at, you work at this low-life bar?"

"Well sir, I just arrived here from Nibelheim. It was about the only place that would hire a small town girl like me. Besides," she paused wistfully, "I need the experience. Some day I'm going open up a bar of my own."

Reno raised his eyebrows as he sipped his alcohol. "What's your name?"

"Tifa, Tifa Lockheart."

Reno downed the rest of this glass and set it back on the counter.

"You poor good liquor, better get that damn bar opened soon. Here, fill 'er up again. What are you going to call the place?"

Tifa smiled, as she leaned back on the counter and looked up at the ceiling. "Tifa's Seventh Heaven."

"I'll drink to that." Reno held his glass out to be filled.

"Thank you." Tifa filled his glass yet again. Reno downed it in one swallow and set the glass down. "Well babe, I'm gonna scram." He fished through his pockets for a moment and then set down a small pile of gil on the counter. "That should cover the cost, and there's a little something extra for you there. Put it towards your Seventh Heaven. I'll be sure to stop by when its up and running, but only if you promise to serve me personally..." Reno licked his lips, "you and no one else." He then winked at her.

Tifa was slightly taken aback by all this, and she looked down at the money on the counter. "Of course, sir." She looked up to thank him but he was already gone.

Reno stuffed his hands into his pockets and craned his head back to look at the sky. A large dark metal plate took the place of the sky. He swayed a bit on his feet and quickly looked back at the ground. After a moment he moved on.

Reno was trying to decide who to hate tonight, Hojo or the rest of the bastard gods on the other side of the ethereal when a near by trash can tipped over. Probably nothing, he told himself and hurried on by the alley. He would not allow himself to think he had seen the glow of Mako eyes down the alley.

The lights on the posts suddenly flickered and went out. The hair on Reno's neck prickled. A shadow rushed across the street in front of him. Reno took his hands out of his pockets and reached for his taser stick. He drew it and moved his arm in a quick downward motion, the stick expanding. His eyes darted around nervously. Reno felt a rush of wind to his back and spun around to face nothing.

Reno took off down the street at a slow jog, the alcohol affecting his balance. The sooner he could get home the better. That place was protected. Surely Sephiroth could not break Hojo's enchantments, Reno thought, He can't there's no way, besides, Hojo is a freaking god!

Reno stopped running and looked around. He swayed on his feet, and took a step forward to brace himself. Where was he? He must have taken a wrong turn, for he was at the end of a dead end alley. Old boxes and newspapers littered the ground. An old wino lay huddled in a corner, asleep. One hand clutched a brown paper sack protectively.

There was the scrape of metal being drug against the brick wall and the sound of wing beats. It was too dark for Reno to see exactly where above him Sephiroth was, but he knew he was close. Reno swore under his breath and adjusted his stance and his grip on his weapon.

"Alright you bastard!" Reno shouted into the darkness, turning to face the dead end wall where he had last heard the wing-beats. "Either leave me the hell alone, or tell me what you want!"

"Very brave words, Reno."

The Turk spun around to see Sephiroth walking down the alley toward him, his eyes glowing coldly in the dim light. Sephiroth moved his hand away from his body and the glint of light on steel could be seen. Reno swallowed. The Masamune... Sephiroth meant business. Reno backed up, but there was no where left to go.

"Let's talk." Sephiroth's voice was calm and smooth.

"Couldn't we go to a bar or something; I could buy you a drink..." Reno offered nervously.

"Mm, you really need to break that addiction. No, I would prefer to talk here," In the blink of an eye Sephiroth had leveled his sword and rushed at Reno. He kept his face voice of emotion as he pushed with his whole body. The sword forced its way through Reno and wall behind him. Reno screamed as Sephiroth continued to push the sword through him. Sephiroth stopped and backed away when there was about 6 inches between Reno's gut and the hilt guard.

"Here, I am in charge."

Reno shrieked and tried to tug the blade out of stomach, but it wouldn't budge.

"What do you know about the angel? What value is she to Hojo?"

Reno spat at Sephiroth. "Bastard! I don't know anything."

Sephiroth stepped forward and took hold of Reno by the shoulders. He jerked Reno to right in a quick rough motion and Reno cried out in pain. Reno was now tilted slightly to the right.

"I'll try again." Sephiroth stepped back and crossed his arms. "What do you know about the angel?"

Reno grit his teeth. He could taste blood in his mouth. "She was... a project of some sort."

"Good. What type of experimentation?"

"How the hell should I know?"

Sephiroth jerked Reno again. He was at almost a 45 degree angle now.

"Ahhhhrgh, alright!!! It was something to do with Cetra... and perfecting them."

"Hojo is not capable of perfection. Only corruption." Sephiroth's eyes narrowed and he stepped forward.

"To hear it from the boss it was perfection."

"What agents did he use?"

"Chaos... and... Jenova." Reno tried to block out the pain. He wasn't going to tell him anything he couldn't learn from the angel. It would all be wasted time on Sephiroth's part. Blood tickled down from the corner of his mouth.

"Hmmm... and was he successful?" If the angel had been corrupted with Jenova Sephiroth would have to destroy her.

"Ooooh yesss." Reno hissed. "Very successful."

Sephiroth eyed the Turk. "You are lying." He reached out and twisted Reno on the blade again. Reno screeched as he struggled to keep his feet on the ground, with which he now being turned parallel. Suddenly all his weight was on the blade and his feet were off the ground. He shook involuntarily from the pain. He could feel his insides being shredded yet the blade did not cut completely through him.

"Damn you, and damn your sword." Reno cried.

"Does it hurt yet?" Sephiroth mocked. Reno shrieked in response. "Good. Now, tell me what I want to know or I'll get angry."

"The... the experiments failed," the Turk panted, "damn angel rejected all of the doses. Hojo decided to get better before he permanently damaged her, so he put her... aside for... a bit."

"Interesting. Now... what is Hojo working on currently?"

"Go to... hell."

Sephiroth shook his head and twisted Reno until he was upside down. Blood began to drip off the blade and onto Reno's face.

The alley was quiet save for Reno's labored breathing and the occasional splat of the blood landing on his face.

"Sephiroth... I swear to you... I do not know what Hojo is working on. He will not even tell Tseng."

"Mmm." Sephiroth crossed his arms again. "What else?"

"He is... calling back the scientists." Reno caved, "Stationed... around the planet." Reno's sentences were broken as he panted, struggling for air. "You must have... really pissed him off... when you took her. He doesn't want you... to gain any progress with her. So he's, calling everyone back... to Midgar. And then... they'll be under high security." Reno was torn for a second between begging and taunting. His malevolent side won. "It looks to be that you.... are screwed."

Sephiroth crouched down and looked Reno in the eye.

"Thank you, its been a pleasure." He stood and jerked the blade out of the wall and Reno tumbled down onto the pavement; curling up in a miserable heap.

Sephiroth whipped off the blade of the Masamune. He walked down the end of the alley and disappeared from Reno's view.

Reno groaned and tried to curl up further. He wouldn't die, for it took more than that to kill a demon, but in the mean time Reno was not sure he could maintain consciousness.

The old wino who had been sleeping suddenly stretched, coughed, and took a long drink from the bottle. Through the darkness of the alley he could make out Reno's form, curled up against the wall, moaning in pain. "Poor guy," muttered the Wino as he stiffly got to his feet, "He must have had a really rough go of things today." The wino shuffled over and squatted down by the Turk and poked him gently in the shoulder. Reno looked up warily. The wino thought a moment longer and then handed him the brown paper bag and the bottle within.

"You look like you could use a drink."


	5. Ch 5

CH 5

Sephiroth opened the door to one of the guest rooms and glanced around. KiyoYume lay sleeping soundly. She looked totally innocent and vulnerable; all the fear and anguish was smoothed from her face; her body relaxed. She was on her side with one arm tucked under the pillow and her wings half spread behind her. Sephiroth crossed the room and shook the angel's shoulder gently. She opened her eyes, blinking the sleep away.

_We are leaving... now. _

"Doko ni ikimasu ka." Asked the angel sleepily as she sat up and rubbed her eyes. _Where are we going?_

"Junon. Your things are already packed. Here... I've also ordered this for you." Sephiroth handed her a brown paper package. "It should be a great deal easier for you travel in this, even if you are seen you'll pose no threat." The general left.

KiyoYume was now wide awake. She untied the strings on the package and peeled back the brown paper. There, inside, was a pair of dark blue women's jeans, a white long sleeved shirt, and undergarments. The back of the shirt was completely open except for several straps that could be tied across the back. Traveling clothes. She put them on, straightened the sheets and then went to meet Sephiroth in the main room.

She glanced out the windows. It was still dark outside, but would not be for long. Sephiroth looked her over. Seemingly satisfied he opened the door and ushered her out into the hall way.

"We'll have to take the long way around the mountains because I could not find a ship that travels from this coast to Junon today. And it would take much longer to hop around from harbor to harbor, waiting for the right ship to come. So we'll be heading through the swamp and the Mythril Mines. It shouldn't take us more than a day. We'll stop at Kalm and pick up supplies." Sephiroth explained as he locked the door.

Sephiroth picked up two duffle bags and led her down through the apartment and out onto the streets. KiyoYume was noticeably jittery as they made their way through the city. She followed Sephiroth as close as possible. By the time they had reached the military garage Sephiroth knew something was wrong.

KiyoYume looked up at him nervously.

'_We're being followed aren't we?'_

_Yes._

Sephiroth did not want to be forced to take on the Turks all at once. He needed an advantage, time to think. He needed to know how many of them there were, for starters, and then he would need to confront them on his terms, not theirs. Distance. Distance was the best advantage he could get at the moment.

_Tie your hair back._

KiyoYume began to quickly twist her long white hair into a long braid and then up into a tight bun. No one noticed her standing quietly off to the side as Sephiroth checked out a motorcycle. No one questioned him either. Motorcycles traveled faster than cars anyway.

Sephiroth walked the bike out of the garage to where KiyoYume was waiting. Sephiroth took his gloves out of his coat pocket and put them on. He sat down on the bike. KiyoYume walked over, prepared to get on the back.

_We have to travel fast; I don't want you open and exposed either._

Sephiroth reached over, picked up the angel and set her on the seat in front of him. It made her shiver to be so close to him. She could feel his strength, something far more savage and dangerous than she had first imagined.

_Hold on, here, like this._

Sephiroth showed her how to hold onto the bike, where the handles met with the frame. Once she was situated Sephiroth leaned forward and took the handlebars, shielding her body from above with his. He started the motorcycle, revved the engine a few times, kicked up the kickstand and they left.

It was not long before they reached Kalm. The angel took a short rest and had a light breakfast while Sephiroth purchased a bit of food and some other things. After that, they were on the road again. It was late afternoon when the passed by the Chocobo farm. KiyoYume wished she could stop and see the great birds, which were fast becoming obsolete in the wake of new technology. She imagined her people had once been in the same situation before they crossed over into the ethereal. She wished the yellow birds well from a distance as Sephiroth drove past without a glance.

When they reached the swamp Sephiroth stopped. There was an odd quiet that reverberated inside KiyoYume's ears for several moments. Sephiroth got off the motorcycle and then helped KiyoYume off. He flexed his fingers and then checked the buckles on the Masamune. He took a few steps toward the marsh and turned around and looked back.

"I'm going to scout ahead. You stay here."

KiyoYume's eyes widened. "You can't leave me here alone! Please don't... I beg of you."

Sephiroth snorted. "I'm sure we've covered much more ground than they figured we could in one day. You'll be fine."

"No, please no..." She ran toward him, clinging to his coat.

"Let go." Sephiroth's voice was hard and icy. KiyoYume released her grip on the coat though she was loathe to do so. In the end, her fear of him had won. Had she forgotten so soon this man was a killer? That he felt nothing for her. The general turned his back and headed off into the swamp.

KiyoYume sat by the motorcycle for a long time and still Sephiroth did not come back. The setting sun had turned the sky a brilliant fiery red in the west as the cool purples of night were beginning to seep in from the east before she heard approaching footsteps. Relieved that Sephiroth was finally returning, she stood up and turned toward the sound.

Reno, not Sephiroth, smirked at her bewilderment.

"Well, well... look what we have here?"

KiyoYume, out of habit and fear, restored back to her native tongue, "Akuma wa doushi te kaerimasu ka?"

Reno laughed, "I haven't heard that language for some time... But honestly, why did I come back?" Reno drew a knife from somewhere behind his back, "I came to pay you back." His eyes hardened. "Sephiroth can't protect you forever!"

Reno lunged at the bewildered angel, slashing with his dagger. She leaned back and the tip of the blade slashed across her right cheek, leaving a thin trail of blood in its wake.

KiyoYume's hand flew to her cheek, "Hoka ni ikimasu!"

"Go away? _Go away?!_ Not until you've suffered." Reno lunged again, this time striking at her neck. KiyoYume tried to back step this attack as well but Sephiroth's motorcycle stopped her and Reno's blade left a slash below her collar bones. KiyoYume blinked as the blade came away from her stained red.

Reno brought the blade to his mouth and smiled a wicked smile. KiyoYume's hand strayed from her cheek to her chest. She pressed her hand to the wound. Reno smirked and slowly, savoringly licked the blood off the dagger.

KiyoYume took off running toward the swamp. Reno swore and threw the blade down. He quickly pulled off his shirt and leapt into the air, spreading his decaying wings. He caught up to her with out any trouble. He swore at her as she evaded his reaching hands.

"It's all your damn fault! I swear to the gods I'll make you suffer!"

Suddenly there was the snap of wings and an enraged cry from behind her. KiyoYume looked back over her shoulder. Sephiroth appeared out of no where, launched himself up into the air, and caught Reno square in the chest. The two grappled in the air for a moment, but Sephiroth soon had the upper hand and forced Reno to the ground.

Reno landed on his back and tried to scrambled away. He shrieked as Sephiroth drove the blade through his right leg. Sephiroth placed one foot on Reno's neck, and pressed him down.

"I see Hojo has patched you up."

Reno snarled and tried to shove Sephiroth's foot aside. KiyoYume, who was some distance away, watched cautiously. Sephiroth pressed harder, the force behind the boot threatening to crush Reno's throat. "Tell me Reno, why is it that you came after her? Hadn't I made myself clear?"

Reno remained silent, though he glared at Sephiroth for all he was worth.

"It wasn't enough, was it Reno? You had to come back and finish her off, didn't you? Well, I'll tell you something Reno, she's not under Hojo's care anymore, she's under mine. And you will _not _concern yourself with my things!" Sephiroth jerked the Masamune straight up and out of Reno's leg. "Get out of my sight, crawl home and warn the others. If I even so much as catch a glimpse of one of you miserable creatures, I will make you suffer."

Sephiroth removed his booted foot from Reno's neck and took a step back. Reno spat as he got to his feet. He looked once more at KiyoYume, his eyes wild with rage and lust. "Itsuka, Mitsukai!" Sephiroth slashed out with the sword, catching Reno across the chest, leaving a shallow mark. "NOW!" Reno swore and turned. He ran, limping, and finally jumped into the air, heading off toward Midgar.

Sephiroth stood in silence and waited. KiyoYume timidly made her approach. He gestured back at the motorcycle, allowing KiyoYume to take the lead. He paused, looking around for anyone else that may have been hiding near by.

Together, in silence, they walked back toward the motorcycle. She wanted to say thank you, but after the realization came to her that he had left her for bait to draw out the pursuing Turk, she could not bring herself to even think the words. He'd left her for bait!

_It was necessary. _She felt him think, though there was no tone of apology. Simply explanation. _Would you have agreed if I had told you? Would you have been convincing enough if you had? _Sephiroth glanced down at her again, noting her wounds._ Can you heal those?_

KiyoYume shook her head, _'Angels cannot heal themselves.'_

_How unusual. _He mused._ Let me take a look._

KiyoYume stopped and let Sephiroth examine the cuts, shifting uncomfortably when he touched her. He rummaged through one of the bags on the motorcycle before producing a small glowing green orb. Heal Materia. Sephiroth held it close to the cut on her chest. The materia began to glow and a small tendril of light began to form. It reached toward the wound and KiyoYume felt the soft warmth of its spirit energy as the pain subsided. The blood vanished and her wound healed. Sephiroth repeated the process on her cheek.

Sephiroth inspected the places where the cuts had been, slowly running his index finger over the area, first below her collar bone, then her cheek. There was a strange tingling sensation, and KiyoYume, without thinking took hold of Sephiroth's hand and moved it away from her.

It was soft electricity between their hands. Sephiroth narrowed his eyes at her in question and she blinked confusedly at the reaction. Sephiroth's black wing materialized.

"Gomen nasai..." KiyoYume said softly without letting go of his hand. The feeling was so familiar, and it brought back memories of the ethereal. Inside the feeling was comfort, closeness, safety. Her eyes pleaded with him.

Sephiroth used his other hand to take hold of her wrist. He slowly but firmly removed his hand from hers and then go of her wrist. She lowered her eyes and after a moment brought her hand close, closing her fingers as if to hold onto the feeling.

Sephiroth rustled his wing and turned away.

The next day they pulled into Junon around late morning. The city was somewhat more chaotic than usual. Sephiroth was not surprised. Hojo's orders would be widespread by now. He only hopped they weren't too late.

Sephiroth cautiously led KiyoYume through the crowded streets, keeping her close so no bumped into or trampled her. His eyes darted from face to face, searching for anyone that might be involved with Shinra.

A short middle aged man in a white lab coat rushed down the street. His hair was starting to thin and had the beginning of the salt and pepper look. His face displayed the lifetime of stress working with Shinra could cause, and his eyes looked around apprehensively. He would be damned if he got into a tangle with Sephiroth simply because Hojo wanted to make this difficult for his son.

The man paused and shifted the multiple briefcases he was carrying. He had to get out of Junon first. He had worked with Hojo on the Pure Dream project. Sephiroth would surely come after him first.

Sephiroth suddenly changed direction, moving fast through the crowd. KiyoYume struggled to keep up with him. She could feel the panic and confusion in the people around her as people struggled to get out of Sephiroth's way. Sephiroth drew his sword and advanced, eyes locked on the scientist.

The scientist caught a glimpse of Sephiroth from the corner of his eye. He swore and started to run.

People were now screaming and moving away from Sephiroth, singling him and the scientist out. KiyoYume was lost in the confusion; the waves of emotion overwhelming. People bumped into her, shoving her aside without a second thought. She soon became disoriented and completely turned around.

'_Sephiroth!'_

Sephiroth paused and cocked his head, listening. The cornered scientist took the opportunity to run. Sephiroth slashed out with his blade to stop the man, catching him across the chest.

KiyoYume gasped as a sharp pain flashed through her chest. Through the crowd she saw Sephiroth. Follow him; the source would surely be there. She moved toward him through the thinning crowd.

The streets were clearing out. KiyoYume approached Sephiroth and the body. There was a pool of blood forming beneath the scientist. KiyoYume stopped at its edge. The man lay on his back, breathing in quick shallow gasps. She could fee; his spirit energy straining to return to the planet.

"Heal him; I left the materia with the motorcycle."

"I.... can't..." KiyoYume was torched by the fact, and the strain showed in her voice.

"You're an angel; I need him alive, so heal him."

"I'm forsaken, I have no power, I can do nothing."

The blood touched her bare toes, still ebbing out from the body.

"Forsaken or not, you don't need the gods to work magic, so heal him." Sephiroth's tone was dangerous.

"I have no power!" She pleaded.

"You had it once, find it again."

"It was taken!"

Sephiroth held up his sword and leveled it, the point just under the angel's chin. He pressed hard enough to get her to look up and meet his narrowed eyes.

"Enough! You will do as I say. Heal him."

KiyoYume stepped into the buddle of blood, knelt down, and placed her hands over the wound. She clenched her teeth, trying to hold back her tears, and prayed with everything in her. The image of the gods came to mind. They were speaking, but she still could not hear them.

"Do not abandon me," she cried, "I'm here, I have faith, I'm listening."

The All-Father reached toward the angel, and placed a hand on her head.

"We have not forsaken you, daughter. There is no belief anymore; Hojo with his 'science' rules the material now. But we have always been with you. Stop Hojo, young KiyoYume, stop his madness and save the planet."

KiyoYume clung to the god and he embraced her.

"Go now daughter, we shall come to you again. You are needed..."

KiyoYume's eyes snapped open. She felt her life force gather inside her, focused on one thing. The familiar warmth of the spirit energy flowed through her. She breathed. "Naosu," she whispered. _Heal. _

The blood on the street began to fade, and the man's wound to close. Tendrils of spirit energy materialized and wrapped around him, restoring him.

Sephiroth watched as Hojo's influence vanished. The angel's pale skin became a healthy creamy color, the dullness in her hair melted away, replaced by a shimmering white. Her posture was bold, confident. Her soul was now purposeful, but at peace was a life innocent, and uncorrupt, with a soul desire to help. He could see a life which could see all good things in the world, and have compassion for evil.

KiyoYume stood, helping the man to his feet. The scientist looked into her forgiving blue eyes. He was dumbstruck. "An angel? ... KiyoYume... from the project... but why would you?"

Sephiroth wrapped his hand around the man's throat and shoved him against the nearest wall.

"So, you were involved in the project then?"

The scientist was still staring at KiyoYume, baffled. "Has the project succeeded then? Was Pure Dream a success?" KiyoYume returned his gaze, her soft blue eyes incisive. She shook her head. _No._ The scientist looked at Sephiroth.

Sephiroth tightened his grip, "You are going to tell me everything you know about her."


	6. Ch 6

Ch 6

KiyoYume looked away as Sephiroth slit the man's throat.

"Was that necessary?"

"I didn't want him running back and reporting this to Hojo. Its safer this way," Sephiroth explained as he wiped his blade clean. He glanced over his shoulder at the angel, "I see something's gotten into you though."

"Hojo no longer holds any sway over me. I am myself again." KiyoYume said absently. She was not even looking at him. With her hands behind her back she was staring up into the blue sky, letting the sun beat down on her face. She closed her eyes and rustled her wings, enjoying the moment.

_Indeed, _Sephiroth thought, _she certainly isn't the dismal timid thing she was. I only hope she doesn't decide to cause trouble._ He looked over at the angel who was, at the moment, standing a short distance off. She had her face to the sun and her wings partly spread, soaking in the warmth. Her now beautifully white hair shimmered in the light and her hands hung loosely at her sides with her palms up.

Everywhere she could feel the life of the planet. It whispered softly to her, pleading for help. She wanted desperately to be able to answer. Now that she was restored she would give everything she had to saving the life force of the planet. At the moment she could nothing. She needed to speak to All-Father again and ask for guidance.

Sephiroth walked up the hill toward the angel.

_Come._

The angel sighed and followed Sephiroth back toward Junon. His black trench coat fluttered in the breeze; a black shadow against the late morning sky.

Once back in Junon, Sephiroth checked into a hotel and deposited the two duffle bags in the room.

"I'm going out to buy things. You can stay here, or come with me."

"I'll go."

"Stay close then, don't wander."

Sephiroth walked through town at a steady pace. KiyoYume trailed behind, watching the people. She kept out of their way but observed them curiously. She could feel the myriad of emotions in the air and it dazzled her. She listened as people gossiped, bargained, argued, and made pleasant small talk.

Sephiroth purchased paper and maps at a store along the main road and then had lunch at a small café on a quiet side street. KiyoYume had a cup of herbal tea and a biscuit with honey. The waitress was nice, and so when they left Sephiroth left a small tip along with the total on the table for her.

'_May we look around a while?' _

Sephiroth nodded. Better to keep her satisfied. She'd be less likely to make waves that way.

He led her to one of the nicer parts of town and into a small park. It was a quiet and well kept park. There were a few older people sitting on benches reading the newspaper or walking on a white gravel trail that circled a reflecting pond. Pigeons idly pecked through the grass, looking for worms or insects.

A vender strolled by and Sephiroth gave KiyoYume a Gil to buy some seed with. The angel then sat in the grass and coaxed the pigeons into eating seed from her hand.

Sephiroth sat on a near by bench. Taking a pen out of pocket somewhere inside his coat, he scribbled notes on paper, writing down all the information he'd gathered so far. After he had finished with this, he picked up a nearby newspaper, left there earlier in the day, and began to read through it.

A little before sunset Sephiroth folded the newspaper and set it back down on the bench. He stood, walked over to where the angel was laying in the grass, both hands behind her head, gazing at the sky.

_Are you satisfied?_

"Hai…" she said softly, "Doumo arigato gozaimasu." _'Yes… Thank you so very much.'_

_We should head back now._

The angel nodded, and got to her feet, rustling her wings and dusting herself off. She followed Sephiroth through the park, where the lamps along the path were just beginning to glow. The Mako energy powering them gave a slight greenish tint to the light. They walked back through town, arriving at the hotel just after nightfall.

Sephiroth led KiyoYume up to the room and opened the door for her. He then left her alone, returning the main floor. He found one of the nicer restaurants in the place and had a glass of wine with his meal before returning to the hotel room. When he returned the angel was sitting in the middle of the floor in front of the window meditating. He left her there, went into the other room, and went to sleep.

KiyoYume's mind drifted, reaching out for the ethereal. All Father appeared before her, his presence warm and comforting. KiyoYume bowed, as was custom, sitting on her knees, her face to the ground.

"Speak Child."

KiyoYume sat up and sighed.

"I need guidance Father." She relayed all the events that had occurred since Hojo had captured her and she had been out of contact. The All Father grew solemn.

"If we had the Masamune we could strike Hojo down and end everything now. Hojo is corrupt, and like a mad dog needs to be put down, so does he. But as it stands we are powerless. The Masamune has been stolen."

"I believe the sword Sephiroth wields is the Masamune. I do not know how he is able or even how it came into his possession."

The All Father was silent. "This is a serious turn of events. This Sephiroth; what was he spawned from."

"Hojo is his father. The resemblance is faint, but its there. He's been altered in ways I cannot begin to comprehend. I know not the origins of his mother, other than she was a mortal woman with ties to the Cetra. He has no reaction to pure Mako, and his being is tainted with Jenova." KiyoYume reached into her robes and produced a black feather.

"Strange indeed; so he's a demi-god. He seems to have managed to create a balance of opposing forces within himself; both mortal and immortal, ethereal and material, Mako and Jenova, chaos and life… does he know this?"

KiyoYume shook her head 'No'.

"We need this being on our side. That much is clear."

"That is much easier said than accomplished. He's a killer with no concern for anything but himself. How can I convince a being like that to help me save the planet?"

"You should examine his soul. Then we'll see what can be done. I'll consult the other gods on the matter in the mean time."

"As you wish All Father." KiyoYume bowed low again.

"You have our blessings child."

The angel breathed deeply and opened her eyes. The room was quiet. She knew instantly that Sephiroth back in the apartment for she could feel his presence. His door was closed, the light off. She could hear nothing.

KiyoYume got to her feet, walked towards his door. She pressed her ear to the door and waited. Still nothing. The angle reached out, her fingertips touching the cool metal of the door handle. It was not locked. She placed her hand over the knob and twisted, pushing the door open slowly, but steadily.

Sephiroth lay on his side, one arm bent back under the pillow. His back was to the window and his breathing was deep and even. She waited in the door way for him to respond to her presence. He didn't move. KiyoYume licked her lips nervously, and whispered his name. No response.

KiyoYume stepped into the room, partially closing the door behind her. She made her way across the floor silently, her wings twitching apprehensively. She paused at the side of the bed, watching him. Even though this man protected her, she feared him; feared him even more than she feared Hojo. The thought of actually tasting his soul made her shiver.

The angle tentatively put her knee on the bed and gradually moved her weight. Sephiroth stirred and rolled away from her and onto his back. KiyoYume swallowed and lifted her other foot off the floor and edged across the bed.

The ancient Wutians had believed that exhaled breath was the physical manifestation of one's soul. Over the generations they had abandoned this belief, not knowing there was some truth in the statement. So, in theory, all KiyoYume had to do was wait for Sephiroth the breath out, and then catch his soul.

She leaned as close as she dared, her hair falling around her face in silvery strands, brushing Sephiroth's. His face looked unconcerned in his sleep, but she knew better. The angel took a shaky breath and steadied herself mentally. She moved close, her parted lips millimeters away from Sephiroth's. She reached out with her mind. Sephiroth exhaled. The angel took it in, inhaling softly.

Even in sleep Sephiroth felt a calming feeling seep into his mind. It was a peaceful feeling, one of quiet joy and content. The mannerisms of the angel were playing across his subconscious. Suddenly they were gone, and, like feeling a splinter being slid out from under the skin, he felt them leave, along with something of himself.

Sephiroth's eyes snapped open. KiyoYume started. His hands shot towards her throat, and he took hold. Sephiroth sat up, pushing KiyoYume backwards and pinning her. His eyes narrowed, alive with anger. The angel lay helpless, her neck held in Sephiroth's strong and inexorable hands.

In the moment of silence that followed, she lay there looking up at him, images began to present themselves to her conscious mind. Bloody and bitter, the scenes of Sephiroth's life played themselves out before her. She could not help but shudder as she watched. Sephiroth's childhood was filled with torture, abuse, neglect, and experimentation. As an older child Sephiroth had learned what it was to fight back, what it was to kill. The angel watched in horror as Sephiroth wrought death with his young hands, as he was trained by the army to do so more effectively, and as he implemented his knowledge and skill time and time again.

Sephiroth shook the angel, once, and roughly. KiyoYume blinked, her eyes refocusing. Sephiroth's grip tightened on her neck. She noticed the single black wing, shifting softly in the darkness.

"What the hell were you doing to me?"

KiyoYume remained silent.

"Answer me!"

"Truly, your soul is a tormented one."

Sephiroth clenched his teeth. "That's enough angel! I am not obliged to you in any way. Y_ou_ are in debt to _me_, you will do what I say, when I say. This evasiveness ends here and now. Understood? What were you doing?"

"Getting to know you better. The better I know you, the better I can serve you." There was a slight undertone of mockery in KiyoYume's voice. Sephiroth frowned at the answer, but let it slide, feeling she wasn't being all together dishonest. He let go of her neck and moved off the bed. He picked up a black yukatta from a nearby chair and put it on over his bare torso after willing his wing away. KiyoYume sat up, gently touching her neck. Sephiroth began to pace, the angel remained sitting on the bed, watching.

"As long as you're here and feeling cooperative, let's get some things answered shall we? What exactly are you?"

"As I said before, I'm an angel. An ascended Cetra. And pure Spirit energy."

"What do you know?"

"Many things," KiyoYume paused, picking her next words carefully, "At the moment I probably know more about yourself than you do."

Sephiroth cast a glance in her direction. "Is that so?"

"Yes."

Sephiroth gestured for her to continue. "Please, enlighten me."

"You do not know who your mother was, nor do you know what your father is. You do not understand why you posses a single black wing, or the purpose behind the experimentation you suffered at your father's hands." The angel paused, the effect of her words visible on his face. "There are many things I can answer for you."

"Then do so."

"No." KiyoYume had found her leverage.

Sephiroth crossed his arms, and cast an amused look in her direction, "Pray tell me angel, why not?"

"Not until you help me first."

"I see no reason why I should."

KiyoYume balked. "If you don't this earth will be destroyed and everything in it will cease to exist!"

Sephiroth smirked wickedly, his eyes glowing coldly in the dark room. "It's not my problem."

"Your problem or not, now is _not_ the time for this to happen!" KiyoYume moved to her knees, speaking earnestly, the passion in her voice rising. "Don't you _want_ to live? Don't you have anything to live for? There must be something you care about! You cannot allow millions of innocent lives to be ended simply because you feel the issue doesn't concern you! It does Sephiroth! It concerns everything living on this world, both ethereal and material! Surely you must see this! You are the only one strong enough to fight what is happening. You are obligated to act!"

"I am obligated to do nothing! We're finished for the evening. You may leave now."

KiyoYume's jaw dropped. "You can't be serious?"

"I'm very serious," Sephiroth's tone was becoming dangerous, his agitation starting to show, "now, if you'd please?" He opened the door and gestured.

"You must do something!" KiyoYume's eyes pleaded with him, "You cannot just stand by while everything around you withers and dies!"

"I can, and I will!" Sephiroth's words stung like a whip. "Now, go, for I've reached the last of my patience with you angel!"

KiyoYume dared not stay longer and further provoke his anger. She slid to the edge of the bed and stepped down. She could feel his emotions in the air. The anger and bitterness were so thick she could almost taste them. She left quietly, but inside she was seething as much as he was. It was not over yet, not as far as she was concerned. If this was the way it had to be, then so be it, but it was still far from being over.


	7. Ch 7

Ch 7

KiyoYume paced, her irritation boiling over. "It cannot be done! He's impossible! He values nothing, depends on nothing, sees beauty in nothing! He's entirely self dependent, self absorbed. He won't even acknowledge me anymore. We'll never get him to join us willingly."

"Patience child, patience."

KiyoYume stopped pacing and looked at the All Father. Her wings jittered and her small hands slowly unclenched. "I've been at it for days now. I've pleaded, begged, tried to bargain, everything! There's nothing he finds pleasure in except destruction. There's nothing out there that he can't obtain if he really wants to. I'm nothing to him."

"Well, what is he planning now?"

"We're going to leave for Cosmo Canyon soon. He's going to prove to me that my information isn't so hard to come by."

The All Father nodded. "Ah,Bugenhagen. No matter there. Bugenhagen does not posses the information you have. Ease yourself."

KiyoYume heaved a sigh.

"Don't worry. We'll think of something."

"In the mean time, what should I do?" KiyoYume said with a great deal more self control.

"Whatever you can. Don't provoke him any further. Give him some distance, let him see that there is value in you, and the information you bear." The All Father placed his hands over KiyoYume's, "Now, Mitsukai, child of my people, go with our blessings." KiyoYume bowed low in response.

The angel opened her eyes. The room was quiet, the mid morning sun streaming in through the window. Sephiroth was not in the building. She could feel his lack of presence immediately. The duffle bags were packed and waiting by the door. Sephiroth had probably just gone out to get some last minute things.

KiyoYume decided, at that moment, what she would do. If Sephiroth wanted distance, he'd get distance. With or without Sephiroth's help she was going to do something. For, at this point, she felt desperate to answer the planet's pleas. She stood, walked the duffle bags and began to rummage through them. When she was certain that only her belongings were contained in the smaller one, she picked it up and tested its weight. Deciding it wasn't too heavy; KiyoYume opened the door and snuck out. A single white feather lay on the floor in the sun.

KiyoYume left town quietly, no one noticing as she slipped through the crowds. KiyoYume followed the train tracks out of Coreal and into the mountains. By mid noon KiyoYume began to notice a peculiar stink in the air. The smell was that of thick black smoke, raw Mako, burning oil, and machinery. It was the smell of a Mako reactor. KiyoYume more determined than ever, followed the tracks further into the mountains and toward the reactor. As she followed the tracks around the side of the mountain the Reactor came into view. KiyoYume cringed at the sight of it, and wondered if there were experiments housed in every reactor; or did Hojo merely favor the reactor at Nibelheim.

KiyoYume set her bag down and stopped to think for a moment. The reactors sucked Mako out of the planet. They were drawing the very life force out of the planet for Shinra. KiyoYume decided that if there was any way to stop the planets destruction, she would have to start with the Mako reactors. The angel stretched, picked up her bag, and continued along the railroad tracks.

The Mako reactor loomed ahead of her. She picked her way through the shadows as carefully as she could manage, keeping her wings pressed close to her. Workers milled about, preparing for the even shift. SOLDIER privates patrolled the entrances and the perimeter of the reactor.

The angel looked around for someplace to hide her duffle bag. She would have to get it on her way back. As she was stuffing the duffle bag under some near by shrubs she heard a soft clinking sound. Confused, she pulled the duffle bag back out and examined it. In one of the internal pockets she hadn't noticed before she found a wide variety of materia. KiyoYume groaned. She'd accidentally taken half of Sephiroth's materia. "So much for not provoking him." She sighed and looked through the materia, determined to make the most of the situation.

It was a purple materia that caught her attention. She pulled it out and held it in her hands, feeling the energy. It was Away materia. She reached out with mind, feeling out the spell inside. Though KiyoYume, being spirit energy herself, didn't need the materia, it'd given her an idea. Her confidence regained, she didn't hesitate. KiyoYume cast and held the spell, placed the materia back into the bag, zipped it up, and stashed it back under the shrubs.

The guards remembered nothing. Their attention seemed to wonder away from the young woman walking toward the door. Certainly she was nothing remarkable or worth worrying about. KiyoYume slipped right past them and in through the front door. Once inside the reactor she released the spell and moved to the shadows to wait for her eyes to adjust to the low lighting.

It was hot and humid inside the reactor. KiyoYume's hair clung to her face and arms. The dim light provided enough cover for her to move around with relative safety. She made her way deep into the reactor, picking her way around the machines. As she went a plan began to take shape. Once KiyoYume had reached the core of the reactor she began to search for a safe spot hide herself. Once she found a suitable space, a small control room, she locked herself inside.

She slipped into a deep concentration, picturing the reactor and everyone around it. She felt their life forces and drew herself a mental map. KiyoYume began to chant, her soft voice drown out by the machines. Slowly, the spells effects began to seep out over the reactor.

Slowly spreading from the angel, a strange quiet began to take hold of the place. The rumbling of the machines around her slowed and then stopped. A fly, buzzing haphazardly around, suddenly found itself trying to fly through air that was like molasses. Its wing beats slowed, and then stopped, though the fly remained suspended in air. All throughout the reactor people and machinery alike slowed and then stopped.

KiyoYume while still concentrating on the Stop spell devoted a separate amount of her mental energy to a new spell, choosing the targets very carefully. The Machinery. While still under effect of the Stop spell it could not move, but the effects of the Haste spell still held. The angel was sweating from the effort and her finger's trembled, but she held her concentration. All around her machinery began to age. Rust started to appear around bolts and screws, and eventually it spread. Dust began to gather, and cracks to appear in the weakening gears. The whole reactor was ageing.

Sephiroth walked back to the hotel, his parcel tucked under one arm, his free hand on his Masamune hilt. He nodded to the receptionist at the front desk and informed her that he'd be leaving within the hour. He started up the stairs, his thoughts drifting over the events of the last few days.

KiyoYume had begged and pleaded for help. He'd refused. This morning though, the angel had been unusually quiet; as if he'd finally broken her. His will was law, he needed her to know that. She was his possession, and he was not going to negotiate. Sephiroth unlocked the door and entered the room. He knew at once that KiyoYume was not there. A single white feather lay on the floor. Sephiroth's eyes narrowed. He glanced down and to his right. One of the duffle bags was missing.

Sephiroth tossed his parcel onto the couch and left the room. He informed the receptionist it would be another day or two. Sephiroth left the building and paused in the streets. He looked around carefully. The train tracks caught his eye. He smiled coldly. KiyoYume would not escape him so easily.

Sephiroth followed the train tracks deep into the mountains. He noted this was the direction the North Coreal reactor, and knew he'd guessed correctly. KiyoYume would not be far.

When he rounded the last bend, and saw the reactor he knew something was wrong. It was deathly still. He felt the strong presence of magic radiating from the reactor. He also felt the presence of quite a bit of materia. His Materia. Sephiroth found the duffel bag without much effort, and then went on toward the reactor. As Sephiroth drew close to the reactor he felt the spell wash over him. He chuckled and shrugged off the effects of the spell. KiyoYume, meanwhile, was concentrating too hard to note the presence of a new target within her spell's.

He passed SOLDIER guards, frozen in mid step. Workers were stopped in mid conversation, or work. A wrench hung suspended in mid air, hands out stretched as one worked tossed it to another. Sephiroth saw that even a fly had been victim of the spell. He watched as the machinery and gears aged before his eyes. Rust crept across the metal. Dust gathered on every available surface. Concrete was beginning to crack and crumble. Chains supporting great weight groaned precariously as their links were weakened by time. The people, he noted, remained unchanged by time. They had been carefully calculated out of the spell. This was certainly KiyoYume's work.

Sephiroth followed the spell to the center of the reactor. The decay here was most evident. Gears that had been half an inch thick were now almost paper thin, and speckled with holes. The floor shifted under his weight with each step, no longer stable. Machines were completely caked in rust, ruined beyond repair. This reactor would never run again.

Sephiroth caught a glimpse of white amidst the rust and gathering dirt. He carefully made his way towards the angel. She had locked herself inside a small control room. Sephiroth grasped the door handle, and jerked. The lock, which had mostly eroded, gave way and Sephiroth pulled the door open. She stood, eyes closed, concentrating hard, sweat dripping down her forehead.

The general shook his head and sighed as he approached the angel. She was very deep in concentration. He had to admit though; it was incredibly skillful work on her part.

A sharp slap broke the silence as Sephiroth backhanded KiyoYume. The angel's concentration snapped as she staggered to her right, her hands reaching for her cheek. Her eyes widened as she realized what had happened.

A fly buzzed harmlessly through the air. A worker caught a wrench and found it mostly rusted over. He scratched his head in confusion. Everywhere people found themselves able to walk again, move again, talk again; but… how their surroundings had changed. Shouts of panic and confusion began to reach Sephiroth's ears.

"This is ridiculous! It has got to stop. Let's go." Sephiroth turned to exit the room. KiyoYume made no move to follow him, "No."

Sephiroth paused, and turned around to look at her. "Excuse me?"

KiyoYume stood, her hands clenched and her wings shaking. "I'm not going with you. You won't help me, so I see no reason to offer you any assistance. I'm going to do this on my own."

"How very sentimental of you." Sephiroth chuckled, mildly amused at her statement. "However, you have no choice in the matter."

KiyoYume suddenly fired a burst of mental energy at him. Sephiroth casually redirected the energy with a slight wave of his hand. He then launched himself at her, closing the distance between them faster than KiyoYume could track. His strike sent her into the wall, where she left a large dent the weakened metal. The angel slid to the floor and groaned. She tried to gather her strength and attain a standing position, but mental exhaustion won over. She lay on the floor unconscious.

Sephiroth picked up her body, flung it over his shoulder and left. He used his Enemy Away materia to keep attention away from himself. Things had definitely gotten out of hand with the angel. Something he would soon have to remedy.

Once they were back at the hotel Sephiroth set to work. He left KiyoYume on the couch and began to rummage through his materia. He picked out three glowing orbs, two green and one yellow. He then sat down at the desk with the materia. One at a time, he picked the orbs up, held them gently between his fingers and focused his mental energy into them. His fingers moved about the surfaces of the orb, rearranging the focus of the energy inside.

KiyoYume moaned as she struggled back to consciousness. Sephiroth brushed the hair out of her forehead in attempts to sooth her back into sleep. He then gently unwound the layers of her robe. KiyoYume shivered in her sleep as the cool air moved across her exposed skin. Sephiroth brushed the smooth skin above her breast bone with his fingertips. He moved them slowly downward until he found the place where her pulse was the strongest.

Sephiroth then held one of the materia orbs above her heart, letting the other two rest on her stomach. The materia began to glow of its own accord, reacting to all of the pure spirit energy inside KiyoYume. Sephiroth then carefully placed his left hand over KiyoYume's mouth and his right hand on top of the materia, pressing it to her chest. He barely noticed the sensation of his wing coming into existence.

KiyoYume's eyes fluttered open. Her gasp was muffled by Sephiroth's hand. His eyes flashed to her face, and he applied more pressure to the hand over her mouth to stifle her rising scream. He concentrated on the materia under his other hand and began to push. The materia didn't resist and as Sephiroth slowly, but steadily pushed, the materia slipped into KiyoYume's body.

The angel screamed and thrashed, striking at him with her small fists. Sephiroth paid her no attention and began to push the second orb of materia into her; then the third. He used his now free hand to catch one of her fists and squeeze while directing it away from him. KiyoYume stopped struggling, her eyes filled with terror. Sephiroth put his face very close to the angel's, his eyes intense.

"Listen well, angel. I have just embedded three materia into your heart. I can't have you running off anymore and drawing attention to our ware a bouts. This will ensure you stay close to me from now on, and maintain your best behavior. If you try to run away, the Gravity materia will draw you back to me, if you try to phase over into the ethereal, the Manipulate materia will disrupt you, and if you try to remove the materia, the Fire materia will explode and you will die. Understand?"

KiyoYume nodded her head slowly.

"Good." Sephiroth let go of her fist and uncovered her mouth. He stood up and looked down her, his eyes completely unforgiving. "We're leaving tonight. We'll be going by motorcycle, so dress appropriately. You have five minutes."

KiyoYume watched Sephiroth go, completely stunned. One hand strayed to her chest. She could feel the warmth of the materia under her skin, and the new strength of her pulse. Three small circular white marks could be seen on her chest where they had been pushed through her flesh. She ran her fingers over them. It didn't hurt at least.

KiyoYume changed quickly and decided to see just how far the Gravity materia would allow her to go. She walked to the other side the room; nothing yet. She opened the door and walked into the Bathroom. An uncomfortable sensation started to develop in her chest. Her fingers and toes tingled. She walked to the other side of the bathroom. The sensation grew. The angel sighed and walked back through the rooms to the front door where Sephiroth was waiting. He cast her an amused glace, as if he knew what she had been doing. KiyoYume crossed her arms and looked away.


	8. Ch 8

Ch 8

KiyoYume came to discover on the long trip to Cosmo Canyon that her freedom depended greatly on Sephiroth's mood, which was in turn greatly affected by her behavior. Sephiroth knew that KiyoYume couldn't stand to be near him, and so, as punishment, Sephiroth often focused the range of the Gravity materia to very short, forcing KiyoYume to be within five feet of him at all times. Other times, he was very forgiving and KiyoYume could move up to about forty or fifty feet before getting the uncomfortable sensation in her chest.

She had tested the limits of the spell only once. Sephiroth had been asleep and KiyoYume had decided to leave the inn. She walked out of the door to their room and down the hall, the uncomfortable feeling becoming a pull. It became much harder to walk forward as the pull grew stronger. When it became painful the pull jolted KiyoYume off her feet and onto her back, dragging her back several feet. Determined, KiyoYume got up and ran, the pull tugging her back again. It caused her muscles to ache and her heart to hurt, for the pull was strongest there.

Sephiroth had of course felt her tugging at the spell and was awake when she came sulking back to the room, sore and irritable. He smirked at her. "Satisfied?"

"I hate you."

Sephiroth threw back his head and laughed at that. KiyoYume yelped in pain as the radius of the spell was suddenly shortened and she was jerked towards him. She tried to push herself away from him, her arms trembling as she fought the pull. Her elbows buckled and she collapsed against him. Her body shook all over in fear and repulsion. There was no greater torture that Sephiroth could inflict upon her than this and he knew it.

"Now," he said, tilting her chin up, forcing her to look him in face, "when I say I'm not going to let you cause anymore trouble I think you understand I'm serious. So we should get along a lot better from this point out. Don't you agree?" His eyes glowed in the darkness of the room. KiyoYume thought he looked particularly wicked when he was in these sorts of moods and so refused to answer in fear of retaliation. The angel spent a very miserable night on the floor, refusing to sleep on the same bed.

KiyoYume shook the dust out of her feathers as Sephiroth unpacked the saddle bags. He handed them off to KiyoYume while he parked the bike safely inside the city, once his motorcycle was take care of, he took the packs back from KiyoYume and headed toward the Inn of Cosmo Canyon. The angel looked about the city with great curiosity.

The city itself was built into the cliffs. Moving from building to building required the use of either stairs or ladders. Feeling pleased at their arrival, Sephiroth let KiyoYume wander the city while he went to talk to Bugenhagen.

KiyoYume made her way down to the gound level of the city. Dusk was falling and the citizens were lighting a camp fire in what could be considered the 'town square'. Curious and not wanting to waste a chance to exploit her temporary freedom KiyoYume approached the small gathering. Adjusting her robe to hide her wings she walked into the circle of light.

"Greetings traveler! Welcome to Cosmo Canyon! Come share a meal with us." KiyoYume was welcomed into their midst rather quickly. After a community meal everyone settled down into smaller conversations. The angel was content to simply listen until a well muscled young man with dark skin sat down next to her.

"Name's Barret! What brings you to Cosmo Canyon?"

"I'm… traveling with someone who has business here."

"They must have come to see Bugenhagen huh? Good ol' Bugenhagen. He cames so much about this planet. I admire the man. Wish there was more I could do to help!"

"You can help!" KiyoYume exclaimed, "Even the smallest thing can make a difference. Just as one small pebble can start a rock slide, or a single snow flake can cause an avalanche, so too can one person start something big!"

"You know… I never thought of it like that before…" Barret looked at her, his eyes full of hope, "you really mean it, you really think I can make a difference? You think I could start… well… an avalanche of change?"

"Sure!" KiyoYume smiled at him, "everything helps. The Cetra believed…"

"Woah! You know about the Cetra!? Tell me more!"

Sephiroth looked out the window at KiyoYume sitting in a circle of people. Bugenhagen floated over to his side and followed his gaze.

"I can't believe Hojo had one of the ascended, a Cetra…"

"She's more trouble than she's worth." Sephiroth retorted. "All I have been able to find out is that she's a being from the ethereal, if there is such a place, and that she can control Spirit Energy. Hojo tried to corrupt her with Jenova, but she seems to be immune to it. She won't tell me anything, refuses to unless I help her save the planet. But surely she can't know anything you don't."

"My knowledge is limited. KiyoYume could answer the questions of the universe for you, if you gave in a little and helped her."

"Mmm." Was Sephiroth's reply.

"But of course" Bugenhagen continued, "you do not believe she is Cetra, or an Angel, or any of that. But I warn you, I can sense she is as stubborn as you are, and neither of you will get anything from the other if you do not concede a little in some way."

"I refuse to believe she is the only person with knowledge pertaining to the Cetra. There has to be records of them somewhere."

"There are two people left alive in this world who can answer your questions. KiyoYume and Hojo. You'll have to cooperate in some way with either one of them to get what you want. Brute force and intimidation isn't the solution to every problem."

"Enough. I'm tired of hearing your prattle on. I don't have to help her do anything. If you won't help me, I will find someone else who will. If you say Hojo knows, then I should be talking to him, not you, for information. In the end I will get what I want."

"And what, exactly, is that Sephiroth? To what ends will you sacrifice the angel for?"

Sephiroth turned away from the window. "Godhood."

They were on the road the next morning at dawn. Sephiroth had refused to allow KiyoYume to speak with Bugenhagen, instead restricting the Gravity Materia and forcing the angel to stay at his side.

"I tire of your games. I'm returning you to Hojo."

KiyoYume's eyes widened in horror. "You can't, please, don't, I beg of you, please don't turn me over to that monster! I'll do anything, I can't go back to that kind of torture, he'll kill me!"

"You should have thought about that before you decided to be so uncooperative. We're headed for Nibelheim."

"Please, don't give me back to him, don't let him put me away in the dark! What he did to you, you can stop that from happening to others!" She pleaded. Sephiroth narrowed his eyes at her. She felt the fire material start to warm in her chest.

"You know _nothing_ about what happened to me. If you do not quiet yourself this instant I will make you burn the entire way to Nibelheim."

"Sephiroth… are you done playing with my lab rat?" Hojo said by way of greeting.

"You should thank me, she's doing better now than she was when you sealed her." Sephiroth gestured to the corner where KiyoYume sat, bound and gagged.

"Oh come now, was that really necessary?" Hojo moved towards her.

"Don't! Not until I have what you promised me." Sephiroth help out the Masamune. "Is she a Cetra, and what happened to them?"

"She is a Cetra, the last of her kind I'm afraid. I found her in a small mountain villiage, the last survivor. The wings are a result of my experimentation. The Cetra are simply a race, just as the Wutai are a race. There was nothing magical or special about them." Hojo went to the bookshelves, 'Here are the records from when I found her."

Sephiroth looked at KiyoYume and then back to Hojo, a little unsure of who to believe. He took the book and began to thumb through it. Sephiroth continued his inquiry to which Hojo had a endless supply of answers.

KiyoYume stopped listening after the first several lies. She would not go back to Hojo, no matter what the cost. There was no way she could wiggle her way out of the ropes, and phasing over to the ethereal would kill her. She briefly considered it, but quickly decided that for the sake of planet she could not. The angel had one desperate idea.

The two men were deeply grossed in conversation and did not notice KiyoYume close her eyes in concentration. After several minutes she began to sweat and a soft glow could be seen under her shirt. As her spell was nearing its end Hojo happened to glance in her direction.

"Nooo!" He shrieked, bolting towards her.

With the last bit of strength KiyoYume unwound Sephiroth's spell and forced the fire material from her body. There was a violent explosion and the room caught fire.

"Find her!" Hojo screeched, "She cannot get away!"

But the corner was empty and the fire was rapidly spreading. After several seconds of frantic searching she was not to be found. Hojo and Sephiroth were eventually forced from the mansion.

"This is your fault, all your fault, if you hadn't messed with my precious specimen none of this would have happened, all my research, all those books, gone, GONE!" Hojo screamed.

Sephiroth drew his sword, "Don't try my patience Hojo, I will cut you in two!"

Hojo spat and headed back towards the burning mansion and Sephiroth turned and walked into the night.


End file.
